Broken Glass Slippers
by Bloody Creature
Summary: A semi-typical Cinderella story as each character deals with their own demons all the while finding their true selves through the art of dance. Sasu/Saku centric, but each character and pairing gets their limelight.
1. Newt

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

_I never saw myself in the way that they all saw me. They told me I was just as my namesake: a blossom, but I couldn't believe them._

_It wasn't until the lights blinded me and that gorgeous silhouette met my eyes that I, for the first time, felt beautiful._

_We flew into those burgundy skies together, my angel and I, and although my glass slippers fell off midflight, the wind chilled me to the bone, and I might have fallen to my death at any second, I smiled and felt all the love I've missed in my life fill me._

_That love was overflowing._

_I saw, for once, a happy ending._

_Or perhaps a happy beginning…_

* * *

Chapter 1  
_Newt_

It was raining.

That was all she could recall from the day before. Everything else seemed to be a blurry haze through the terrible headache she was experiencing. In fact, as she slowly opened her dull green eyes only to squint them tightly shut again, she realized that she couldn't even recall where she was.

After a few minutes of unfamiliar, hushed voices echoing around her aching skull, she pried her poor eyes open and stared up into the extremely bright fluorescent light.

The sound of screeching tires and those beautiful, panicked eyes begging for life invaded her vision and she jolted upright, terror gripping her wounded chest.

"Haruno-san! You mustn't sit up yet!" A nurse with light brown hair tied into a tight knot on her head rushed over to the terrified pink-haired girl and slowly encouraged her to lay back down as she double-checked the wounds in case they accidentally tore open again. With a sigh of relief, the nurse jotted something down on her clipboard and excused herself for a second.

Sakura slowly realized she was in the hospital and in terrible pain. Her eyes scanned the room slowly. Where was her father? Surely he was here with her to help ease her mind from the traumatic events from the day before. Perhaps he went to grab a drink or use the restroom. He'd never leave his precious little girl alone in the hospital for more than a few minutes. She wished for him to return soon. She felt terrifyingly lonely.

Maybe the nurse went to go get him? She thought hopefully, closing her heavy eyelids.

She opened her eyes again and found a worried, puckered face above hers. The dark red hair could only be Haruno Chiharu, her step-mother. The woman smiled brightly as Sakura finally awoke.

"Thank goodness you're awake," Chiharu sighed, sitting back in her stool next to the bed. Next to her was her biological daughter, Karin, whose bright red hair was only matched by her equally red eyes behind thick-rimmed glasses. They both looked worriedly at Sakura as the nurse helped the her sit up comfortably.

Sakura accepted the glass of water from the nurse with a hoarse 'thank you' before looking around the room again. Her headache felt significantly less painful than it was earlier.

"Where's papa?" She asked still looking around. She took a sip of the water and looked expectantly at Chiharu and Karin.

They blinked at each other before the older red-head took Sakura's free hand and looked seriously into her green eyes. "Do you remember what happened?"

Sakura nodded slowly, watching the door as she waited for her father. "I was in a car accident."

Her blunt statement shocked Chiharu and she pitied the girl for the first time since she had joined the family. "Sakura, Kizashi is…"

The pink-haired teen smiled. "Is he coming right now? I want to see him."

"He's gone," Chiharu continued, sucking in a quick breath in anticipation for the realization to dawn on poor teen.

Sakura looked confused. "Where'd he go?"

Karin never heard someone as pitiful or as irritating as Sakura was being right now. She normally hated her step-sister and the annoying laughter that jingled 24-7, but at this moment she knew she couldn't dare be rude to her. Not when the last of her biological family had…

Chiharu gripped Sakura's hand tighter, forcing her to look her in the eyes. Sakura's innocent look was beginning to falter, fear settling in once more.

"Sakura," she began slowly, knowing it had to be said. "He was the one driving yesterday… He… He died instantly."

She must have been too shocked to process this information. She was pushing the idea away with her irritating laughter. "No! That can't be right. He just went to use the restroom a little while ago. I'm sure he'll be back soon," Sakura rambled on, smiling cheerfully until the silence around her told her that yes, Chiharu was right.

Her laughter quickly turned to sobbing. "N-no. That's not true! He's… outside! See! He'll be in the doorway right now! Just watch!"

Chiharu didn't let go of the girl's hand, even as the 16-year-old's iron grip began to cut off her circulation, she would be a pillar of strength for her in this time of need.

Sakura's pitiful cries echoed throughout the hallways for the next hour, long after the step-family had to leave and other patients were being released

from their temporary pains, Sakura wept and wept.

* * *

She was in the hospital for another week, missing the funeral and the memo that Chiharu and Karin had bought a different house for the 3 of them to live in. It was on the complete opposite end of Konoha, way out of the bus route for her high school. She didn't have a car and there was no way Chiharu would drive her all the way to Konoha Prep every day.

Sakura hesitantly brought this up as they pulled up to an unfamiliar driveway. Her eyes scanned the lush, green lawn and rose garden definitely left by the previous owners. She almost laughed at the pitiful tree that seemed to have only recently been planted there, but her ribs were still healing and laughing was the most painful thing she could do right now, both physically and emotionally.

Chiharu smiled cheekily in the rear-view mirror. "Oh! I almost forgot, I got you transferred to Karin's school. It's within walking distance from here and Karin says you'll fit right in there."

The excitement in her voice frightened Sakura. How could she just transfer her without getting her consent! That wasn't fair! She had friends there at K-Prep and was in an incredible program that would get her into North Konoha University, which was one of the top ranking medical schools in the country!

She was about to voice her protests, but Chiharu was already out of the car and was walking towards the front door. Sakura shuffled painfully slow out of the vehicle and hobbled towards the door as well. The house was only slightly smaller than their previous one, but it still had two stories and a very cottage feel to it. In fact, if it wasn't for the past week's events, she probably would have adored it, but it just seemed to rub salt into her fresh wounds at everything taking a 180-degree twist in her life.

"Where's my room?" She asked curiously.

Chiharu appeared from the kitchen entranceway to the left of her and motioned upstairs. "Karin had first pick of the rooms, so I guess you're left with the tower."

"We have a tower?" Sakura asked in astonishment.

"Well, no," the older woman stated slowly, "it's the attic, but I thought it'd sound cooler if I called it that."

Well, there was more salt in the wound. "Aren't there any more rooms? This place should have more than two."

"But where will my work-out equipment go?"

She wasn't even surprised at this point. Her and her step-family never did hit it off. She secretly felt that if Chiharu could, she would throw her ass out on the streets, and she was desperate to keep that from happening.

"Here you go!" Chiharu exclaimed excitedly. The attic was actually a decent size, as long as the low ceilings throughout most of it were ignored. It wasn't as dusty as she had expected, but the heat was immediately unbearable.

"Where is all the rest of my stuff?" Sakura asked as she eyed three boxes lying haphazardly on a small mattress. She had a room full of trinkets and books and a closet filled with clothes at her old place.

When no answer came she turned and realized that Chiharu was already downstairs.

So much for that.

The following Monday found Sakura in front of Konoha High School in a white blouse and light blue skirt with her long hair braided and silver headband to keep her bangs where she wanted them; hiding her large forehead and sad eyes.

Trudging towards the entrance and avoiding contact with all the strangers around her, she rushed up the steps and searched for the main office.

The principle was very kind to her and the teachers helped her get a hold of the student president to have him show her around. His name was Hyuuga Neji, a tall senior with long, dark brown hair and the lightest lavender eyes she'd ever seen. She was instantly mesmerized, but couldn't stare for long as he immediately began the curt tour.

"And that hallway leads down to the cafeteria. Students are allowed to go off-campus, but there isn't really anything nearby so very few students do leave. Do you drive?" He asked.

Sakura nodded and added shyly, "Yes, but I don't have a car."

Neji nodded in understanding. "Then you'll just want to stay on campus. Lunch is 50 minutes long and you can find almost anything in the market stand set up in the cafeteria anyway. It isn't too bad. I advise you to stay away from the ramen stand, though. Most people end up in the infirmary after eating there."

She took a mental note of that. She glanced around at the other students and the standard uniform they all wore. She saw Karin laughing with a few other girls and waved a little at her, but the red-head merely glanced at her before turning around and walking away with the other girls.

Sakura slowly put her hand down and looked down at her feet.

She barely registered that Neji had begun speaking again. "… - first class is just down this hall and to the right. You don't need to worry about punctuality. Your homeroom is with Kakashi-sensei. He won't come to class until 15 minutes into your first hour anyway."

"Really?" She asked in amazement.

Neji sighed. "Yes, and the principle would have fired him a long time ago, but his classes always get the best grades in the school when it comes to exams." He suddenly looked away and narrowed his eyes. "Excuse me just a second," he said politely before yelling "Uzumaki!"

Sakura suddenly feared that he was yelling at Karin, since she decided to keep her original last name legally, but when she spotted a familiar blonde head her heart instantly lightened.

"How many times have I told you to wear your uniform properly!"

"S-sorry Neji! I woke up late and rushed to change and-"

"Just like every day for the past two months you've woken up late?"

Uzumaki Naruto fumbled with his shirt to fix the buttons before the Hyuuga's wrath was released when he noticed something a bit out of place. He pointed past Neji. "Hey! But that girl isn't even wearing her uniform! You sexist bastard!"

Neji's eyebrow twitched. "She just transferred here. She'll be in your class so why don't you meet her and make sure she finds her classes." He motioned to Sakura and she rushed over. Naruto's eyes lit up suddenly when he finally saw her pink hair and glittering green eyes.

"Sakura-chan! What are you doing here?" He exclaimed gleefully as he flung his arms around her. Sakura was so happy to see a friendly face she nearly cried.

"We moved a few days ago and I had to transfer schools," she explained. Naruto squeezed her a little tighter but quickly let go when she hissed and hunched over herself.

"I'm sorry! Are you okay?" He freaked as he watched her take deep breaths. She nodded and smiled slightly.

She stood straighter and rubbed her ribs. "It's okay. I was…" She faltered. "Uh… I was injured a week ago and am still recovering a bit, so please be careful of my ribs."

Neji, having been long forgotten by the two, cleared his throat to gain their attention. "Well, I see you two already know each other, so I'm going to go check in at the office and make sure your uniform order is sent off immediately." He turned to Naruto. "And if I catch you still looking like a mess later today, I'm going to write you up."

Naruto saluted him playfully and lightly placed his arm around Sakura's shoulders, mindful of her injuries now. "How'd you get hurt? And how did oji-san let you come here? Weren't you going to that preppy-ass school on the other side of town? God damn I'm so happy to see you!"

Sakura laughed softly at his exuberant nature. Of course she'd known Naruto for a while, as he was her step-cousin and often had play dates at her house when they were in elementary school, when her step-family had brilliant smiles and her father was twirling her around and sneaking them all cookies from the cookie jar none of them could reach.

Karin, Naruto, and her used to always hang out when they were younger and Kizashi had barely married Chiharu, but once middle school happened they all seemed to grow distant from each other. Karin began wearing make-up and calling her mean names, and Naruto simply stopped showing up to her house. She was distraught that her blonde best friend disappeared from her life and Karin seemed to be replaced by a completely different person.

She was reluctant to talk about her accident and the mention of her father brought a lump to her throat. She was grateful when Naruto's attention had been shifted to entering the classroom and gesturing widely to the other students. Leave it to Naruto to create a scene, she thought fondly. He hadn't changed a bit.

"Hey guys!" He shouted to the other students. Some of them groaned and others told him to keep quiet, but he kept smiling and motioned to Sakura, who suddenly felt the weight of all their stares and blushed.

"This is Haruno Sakura! She's one of my childhood best friends and is super smart. Everyone say hi!"

Sakura was about to shush Naruto when, surprisingly, a few voices actually begun calling out a "Hi Sakura" with a long sigh. Naruto whooped when he succeeded in introducing her to the class and tried to pull her as gently as possible towards the other side of the room, where a group of students were talking animatedly.

"Hey guys! Guys! This is Sakura!"

A girl with bright blue eyes and long, bright-blonde hair tied up into a high pony-tail sighed dramatically and flicked Naruto's forehead. "We know, _stupid_. You just announced it to the whole world." She was sitting on a desk and slid off delicately and ignored Naruto's loud protest at being flicked. She smiled at Sakura and held out her hand. Sakura took it shyly and was surprised at the firm handshake the other girl gave her.

"I'm Yamanaka Ino. It's nice to meet you, Sakura-san." She pulled her into her arm and motioned with the other to the students in front of them. Akimichi Chouji was a plump student who was munching on potato chips gingerly and gave her a kind smile from his seat. It was his desk that Ino had been sitting on. In the seat next to Chouji's was Nara Shikamaru, who seemed to be napping with his spiked, brunette head shoved into his folded arms on his desk. In front of him was a laughing brunette named Inuzuka Kiba, who had a smile identical to Naruto's as they laughed together about some unknown subject. He gave her a cool "Yo" and returned to chatting with the hyperactive blonde.

Ino let her go and resumed her perch on Chouji's desk. He didn't seem to mind and merely continued chomping on his chips, smiling in content. Sakura felt a little awkward just dropping into their circle of friends, but didn't want to seem rude by just leaving them.

The pretty blonde smiled sweetly at Sakura. "Feel free to hang out with us anytime. I know what it's like to move to a new place and a new school in the middle of the year. It sucks." She laughed and the sound lifted Sakura's spirits. She smiled back, thankful for the kindness they were showing her. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad here.

"Oh!" Naruto suddenly exclaimed and rushed away from them. Sakura watched him curiously as he seemed to ambush a poor girl whose porcelain skin turned beat red at his surprise attack. Her hair reached her hips and was a deep shade of purple. Beneath her perfectly cut fringe were the same exact eyes as Hyuuga Neji.

Naruto nearly dragged the girl over to them, shouting excitedly. "Hinata-chan! Look! This is Haruno Sakura, one of my bestest childhood friends ever!"

Ino groaned. "He's going to do this _all_ day."

"Probably all week," Kiba added.

Naruto ignored them. "Sakura, this is Hyuuga Hinata, the idiot president's cousin."

Hinata's blush never faded as she held her hand out politely and stuttered out a kind greeting. Sakura had never met someone more shy that herself and felt the need to placate the short girl's anxiety.

"Hinata-san, your hair looks so pretty," she told her honestly. It really was. Sakura almost wanted to look at it for the rest of the day to see if it kept that silky sheen and texture.

Hinata's blush increased and she bowed her head slightly. "Th-thank you, Sakura-san. I love the color of your hair."

"It's completely natural!" Naruto said excitedly, happy to show off his old friend.

Hinata told Sakura that there was an empty seat next to hers in the back if she wanted to sit by her and the pink-haired girl accepted the offer thankfully, grateful to sit next to someone who didn't seem like they would try to talk throughout the whole class-time. At her other school, she sat next to a boy named Hirano who believed everyone should know about everything he did the day before and would tell everyone at least twice.

The bell for homeroom rang, but nobody seemed to pay any mind to it. Sakura felt anxious to sit at her seat and glanced around for some sign that the class was going to quiet down and she could get on with her day.

The chattering around the classroom didn't die down until, as Neji had warned her, a teacher with silver-gray hair that she swore defied gravity, a face mask and eye-patch that scared her slightly, stepped in 15 minutes after homeroom ended and first period begun, then finally everyone settled down.

Well, except Naruto.

She learned that Kakashi-sensei didn't really care to lecture much and deemed it a self-study day.

Surprisingly, everyone seemed to comply with this and appeared to be studying diligently.

The rest of the school day went by slowly without any other notable events, other than Naruto's bucket of tears when she politely refused to eat ramen with him during lunch.

She met a few other students that day, such as TenTen and Rock Lee, who was scarily similar in appearance to their phys. Ed. Teacher, Might Guy, who frightened her with his declarations of "Youth!" and "Sportsmanship!" After watching the other students run the 2 miles he demanded of them, she made a mental note to bring extra cash and water bottles to keep extra hydrated.

She passed by Karin a few times during that day and attempted to greet her, but the red-head ignored her every time.

Oh well, Sakura would see her at home anyway, not that they would really hang out anyway.

After school, Sakura received a lock for her new locker from the office and Naruto accompanied her to open it for the first time.

They were surprised to find a piece of folded paper inside.

"Is that a newt?" Naruto asked curiously, pointing at the amateur sketch and green scribbles covering it.

Sakura turned it slightly, confused as to how he came with that idea. "I thought it was an alien."

Naruto laughed at her. "That's funny, Sakura-chan!"

Sakura giggled, too. "Why a newt?"

He shrugged. "Maybe it's because you're 'new'?"

"That's ridiculous."

* * *

**A/N: Hello there. This isn't my first fanfiction, but it is the first and perhaps only one I will post on here. Reviews and stuff are appreciated, but not required. I simply wanted to share my own ideas to those who may want a little extra to read.**

**Forgive me for any grammar errors and such. I have proofread this, but I know I'll catch something later on. I do promise to fix them eventually, though.**

**This story will have many chapters, so expect many updates, however don't expect them frequently.**

**Thank you again! I hope you enjoy future chapters as I do enjoy experiencing them as I write.**

**Ja ne~**at'


	2. Dove

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

_The cheering erupted as soon as I entered onto the stage, my arm linked with my knight's and the prettiest smile I could muster. Watch me shine, everybody._

_We became lovers at that moment, although we knew hardly anything about each other, we knew everything through our eyes._

_I fell in love with the smile he showed me when we reached for the heavens and landed on the clouds, the fires within us begging to come out._

_I'd never seen such a beautiful smile._

_Perhaps, love can exist in this life._

_Maybe, I will learn to love again._

* * *

Chapter 2  
_Dove_

"Ino! Wake up and turn that damn alarm off!"

The blonde groaned angrily before bringing her fist down on the damn thing blaring in her ears. She sat up and tried to wake herself by shaking her head and rubbing her eyes.

She glanced at the clock that read 6:46.

Groaning again, she dropped back onto the bed and rolled herself up in her sheets until she felt like a burrito.

She frowned.

_Shit_.

She really wanted a burrito now.

Ignoring her hunger, she peeked out from her cocoon, glaring at her purple digital clock. It had only felt like a few minutes ago that she had crawled into bed and passed out rather than the hours she actually spent unconscious.

She rolled back on forth on her bed while making quiet sounds of protest to the morning sun peeking in through the pink and blue curtains. She finally stopped, figuring that throwing a fit wouldn't solve anything, and stared up at the ceiling to the poster there she had put up when she was 14. It was of Pein, the leader of the rock band Akatsuki, and her favorite singer in the whole world. Seeing his pierced face and crazy contact lenses smirking at her always lifted her spirits. It was always the first thing she saw in the morning.

She unraveled herself from the blankets and placed her middle and index finger to her lips before slowly lifting them towards the poster, reaching for the celebrity as one would reach for the stars. This is what set her day in motion. This is what helped get her through the hunger pains and invisible eyes scorning her every move.

She took her time getting cleaned up and ready for another day of school. She applied her makeup with careful precision and winked at herself when she was satisfied with the result. Trying hard not to linger on less satisfactory parts of her body, she brushed through her long hair and placed it up in her signature pony-tail, liking the way her long bangs fell over her face as if to provide a curtain of mystery to her right side.

Once dressed she rushed downstairs to grab a piece of toast and glass of orange juice for breakfast and eyed her father sitting at the dining table reading the newspaper with interest.

"'Taka lose again?" She asked as she sat down next to him.

Inoichi clicked his tongue in annoyance and set the paper down in favor of his coffee. "It's like that damn coach doesn't even know what a football is."

Ino giggled at her father. "Hey, maybe they'll hire you as their new coach, Mr. Flower shop owner."

The man couldn't help but chuckle at his daughter's humor. She'd definitely got it from him. "Yeah, well the owner's daughter has to report to work at 4 today."

She chewed her toast thoughtfully and washed down the crumbs with her orange juice, which tasted way too tart for her liking. "Sorry dad, I scheduled to have the flu at that time, so I guess you'll just have to take care of the place without me!" She laughed at the pointed look he gave her and finished up her small breakfast.

Inoichi watched her as she cleaned up her dishes and grabbed her bag from the chair she had previously sat at. He sighed when she reached the front door.

"Just remember that I supply you your paycheck."

"Which is why I'm never late. See you later, daddy. Love you!" She called as she shut the door. Inoichi sighed again, picking up the paper once more. His little girl was growing up fast. He swore that he had been teaching her how to ride her bike just yesterday, but now she's on her way to high school. He was afraid to blink. Soon she'd be graduating college and getting _married_.

He shuddered at the thought.

She was never allowed to leave the house again, he decided.

He snorted at the notion. She was not one to be caged in like that. Ino would simply escape the castle or allow who she deemed worthy to be her knight in shining armor to take her away to another fairy-tale Inoichi would probably not find himself in.

"At least she won't choose some dead-beat." He muttered. That girl had the pride of a Yamanaka, after all.

* * *

It had been a week since Sakura transferred and she really did seem to fit in nicely with the rest of the students now that she had her official uniform. With Naruto dragging her around everywhere, it truly seemed like she had been there all along.

Ino walked into the classroom, narrowly dodging a very poorly designed paper air-plane and glared at Kiba, who was deliberately looking away from her.

She stepped over to him, feeling confident in her stride. "Kiba, you suck at making planes."

"That wasn't me!" He protested. When she raised an incredulous eyebrow, he sighed dramatically and raised his arms. "Okay, you caught me. I was trying to kill you with that lethal piece of paper."

Ino _humphed _and crossed her arms with a haughty smirk on her face. "Well, you'll never get rid of me like that."

"What if I asked you out then?"

"Yeah, that'll definitely keep me away," Ino retorted. Kiba gasped in mock disbelief. "You mean my godly good looks and angel voice don't appeal to you?"

"Nope, dog-breath, 'cause you got none of that."

"Well," Kiba started with an evil grin, ignoring the insult. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and brought out his secret weapon. "I guess I have to resort to _this_!" He thrust his phone with a picture of his puppy, Akamaru into Ino's face.

At this she covered her face with her arms and backed away from the thing, as if burned. "No! Not that! Anything but the adorable, fluffy face of torture!"

"Aha! I got you now, evil fiend! Bow down before my weapon of absolute cuteness!"

Ino continued to shy away from the picture of the very adorable puppy and Kiba laughed maniacally. Naruto drug Sakura in at that point and they both watched the exchange with curiosity.

"He's using his ultimate technique right now," he explained to his pink-haired friend. She looked at him oddly, unsure of how she should interpret this situation in front of her.

Kiba noticed the two then and excitedly waved Sakura over. "Sakura-san! You gotta' see this." When she reached him, she saw what Ino was shying away from and began to gush over the absolute cuteness that puppy emanated. Ino sobered up from her cuteness attack and greeted Chouji as he walked in.

Her eyes widened at the next person to walk in. "Hey, Sasuke-kun's back." She called out excitedly.

Naruto's head whipped towards the person walking towards them and flung himself at the newcomer. "Sasuke!" He whined. "We missed you so much in club. I had to kick all the guys' asses by myself!"

"Get off me, dobe," Sasuke growled as he shoved the annoying blonde off of him. He headed to the back of the room to deposit his bag at desk before walking back up to the loud blonde chattering loudly with the other equally loud blonde about how much Taka was sucking it up in football this year.

Ino turned away from Naruto to greet Sasuke. "Hi Sasuke-kun, how was your trip?"

He hopped up on the empty desk behind Chouji. "Fine."

Ino was going to say more, but Naruto literally jumped in front her. "Sasuke! Sasuke! Guess what!" He pulled Sakura in front of him. "This is Haruno Sakura! She was one of my childhood friends."

Sasuke stared blankly at the pink-haired girl, his gaze piercing hers. She was suddenly struck by the coldness in his gaze and suddenly felt very self-conscience, but she refused to drop his gaze. His hair reminded her of a raven's wing; black and about to take flight. His eyes seemed to match his hair perfectly, save for the slight red tint when the sun would hit it just right.

Sakura hadn't realized that she hadn't said anything yet and had been blatantly ogling the male. She tried to fight off her blush, but ended up just staring at her shoes in the attempt to at least hide her nervousness.

"Nice to meet you," she finally squeaked out. Sasuke didn't reply for a moment, but instead let out a curt sound to let her know that he at least acknowledged her presence before turning his gaze behind him out the window.

Sakura slowly brought her gaze back up, only slightly surprised to find that Naruto hadn't even had enough attention span to observe their interaction and was actually relieved. She was sure she'd be made fun of for acting like a silly middle-schooler with her first crush. Stupid. She should have been more mature just now.

She glanced at the Uchiha once more as he leaned back on his hands with his head turned away, his interest somewhere far off. He looked like a model to her in that instant - a beautiful angel who should be soaring through the sky with his ravens' wings.

In fact, he suddenly looked very, _very _familiar to her. She'd definitely seen him somewhere…

Naruto popped up right next to her, his smile simply radiating sunshine, although she was too deep in thought to actually notice it.

"Hey Sakura-chan, Ino and Hinata-chan were talking about going to go get ice cream after school. Do you wanna' come?"

Sakura didn't even hear him. She was too busy gnawing on her thumb as she tried to figure out just _where _it was that she had seen the raven-haired boy before.

Naruto's smile fell. "Sakura-chan?"

Sakura turned to her blonde-friend and smiled. "Sorry, what did you say?"

He sighed before slinging his arm over her shoulder. "Want to go get ice cream with us after school?"

She smiled and nodded. "That sounds nice."

Meanwhile, Ino watched on. Something close to pain flew through her chest, but she continued to smile and laugh as if nothing had gone within her.

The perfect act.

* * *

"Ino, is that all you're going to eat?" Sakura asked as she looked down at the small salad and bottle of water. "At least put some dressing on it."

The blonde smiled at her. "I had a really big breakfast so I'm not all that hungry right now."

Her friend gave an incredulous look but decided not to press further. "If you get hungry later, I've got some cookies in my bag I got from the vending machine."

"Thanks. I might take you up on that offer later," she lied evenly. She ate her salad slowly, trying to appease her aching stomach as much as she could. This was actually only the second time they ate together in the week that Sakura had transferred. Ino normally skipped lunch to walk around the school, so it made sense that Sakura was shocked at the small amount of food Ino ate.

She didn't want to make her new friend worry about her, so she stood and poured some Italian dressing on her salad. Sakura smiled at her slight victory when the blonde had sat back down to eat.

After finishing her salad and re-filling her water bottle, her and Sakura decided to walk around the school before class started. They roamed the halls almost blindly, letting their feet simply carry them as they chatted. Sakura learned of Ino's family's flower shop while Ino learned of Sakura's dream of becoming a doctor. They mentioned their father's a few times in their conversation, and each time Sakura noticed the way Ino's lips curled upward and eyes lit up in respect, just as Ino noticed the same about the pink-haired girl.

They ended up in the art hallway where they regarded the portraits hanging on the walls with interest, sometimes finding pieces that made them question themselves and others they giggled and questioned the artist.

They stumbled upon one that Ino had, at first, ignored, but after Sakura pointed it out to her, she took a closer look at it.

It was a white bird, it's wings spread wide and it's eyes looking up towards the sky in which it would soon take flight into. The painting was simple, but to Ino it had a profound meaning to her.

The bird was not in flight yet, leaving her wondering if it would ever get to the place it wished to be. Its little feet were tightly gripping the branch under it, as if for dear life. Perhaps it was frightened. Perhaps this was its first time to take flight.

She felt like that little white bird, wishing to join its family and take to the skies to feel the wind all around it.

That moment would be beautiful beyond comprehension.

"That's a really good portrait," Sakura noted, smiling softly as she glanced over the lines, but Ino wondered if she could really understand what the true beauty of it was.

The blonde simply nodded, mesmerized. She was curious as to who could paint something so wonderful like this and glanced at the title.

_Dove_. _By Sai._

* * *

"So we're are you living now," Naruto asked Sakura as they walked towards the school gates amongst the throng of students happy to finally be done for the day.

Sakura pointed down one of the streets. "A few blocks down that way. You should stop by sometime, I'm sure Chiharu would be happy to see you again."

Naruto looked thoughtful as he considered this. "I _do _miss oba-san's cooking. Okay! Can I come tomorrow?"

She nodded, excited to have a friend over for the first time in a long time. Chiharu normally wouldn't let her bring friends over, the only exception was Naruto when they were kids. "I'll ask her today if that's alright."

They found Hinata and Ino waiting for them at the gate. After informing them that Kiba and Sasuke had cleaning duty today and Chouji had club, they left towards the ice-cream shop.

"You're going to _love_ this place, Sakura. It has everything you could ever want for ice cream," Ino told her excitedly.

They all chatted amiably as they walked together. They reached the place, called Gary's Ice Dream, in about 10 minutes. Sakura noticed this place was definitely not what she was used to living on the other side of town most of her life. Many of the shops were small and, well, _dirty_. Paint was chipping, signs were faded, the street was full of pot-holes, and graffiti adorned some of the walls.

The ice cream shop was a lot cleaner on the inside, she noticed with relief. Among the smell of candy and vanilla waffle cones wafting through the air, she noticed smell of household cleaners. They must have just cleaned it.

"Welcome, punks." Greeted a young man with silver, slicked-back hair held back with a visor that had the store logo on it. His eyes were a piercing shade of purple. He smiled almost ruefully at the new customers.

Ino pounded over to the counter and leaned over it. "Looks like someone's in a good mood. Did you just get paid, Hidan?"

He laughed suddenly. "Hell yeah, I did! Now I don't have to listen to Kakuzu bitching at me that I can't pay the rent. Now what do you want?"

The others didn't seem fazed at all at his rude behavior, much to Sakura's surprise. She felt a little unnerved when he turned his gaze to her and whistled as he looked her up and down. A shiver ran up her spine at his leery look.

"Who's this pretty little one? I haven't seen her around before."

"Don't do you that, you creep!" Cried Naruto as he shielded her from his view, which Sakura was more than grateful for.

Hidan laughed again. "Don't worry, stupid. I prefer my women to be older anyway." He looked back at Ino, who was still grinning and leaning over the counter. "But really, who's the new girl?"

"That's Sakura. She just transferred to our school a week ago. Oh yeah, and she's also the idiot's step-cousin." Ino explained. She stood up straight. "I'll have the usual."

Hidan sighed and went to work. "Of course you will."

They all ordered their ice cream, paid, and sat down at one of the round tables near the window.

Hidan invited himself over to sit with them, spinning a chair around so he could sit in it backwards and lean over the back of it.

"Don't you have work to do?" Ino asked exasperatedly.

He smirked. "It's been slow so I finished pretty much everything. There's no other customers around anyway."

"Why don't you get a real job?" Asked Naruto with the same exasperated tone Ino had used.

"Hey, I make big bucks while I'm on tour," he countered. "We're just on the off-season right now and Kakuzu's being a dick about my accounts and won't let me take out any money. I could have a fucking mansion if I wanted to!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Ino waved him off. She turned to Sakura, who was looking back and forth between them all like they were all crazy. "Hidan is the drummer for Akatsuki, but they've been on hiatus for about a year while they figure everything out." She turned to glare at him then. "And he's yet to introduce me to Pein and Konan."

Hidan held his hands up in front of him. "Hey, don't blame me. Pein doesn't like to do to meet-and-greets and Konan won't go anywhere without him."

After hearing who this guy actually was, Sakura had been staring at him intently, trying to figure out if it was all a lie or not. Was she actually chatting in an ice cream shop with a famous drummer? She'd listened to their music many times before and, although she wouldn't consider herself a fan, would definitely jump on any chance to see one of their concerts.

And here was the drummer. He'd checked her out and now was sitting at their table chatting to the others like they'd known each other forever.

Without meaning to, she squealed.

The others jumped and stared wide-eyed at her while she tried to contain herself and her extremely red cheeks by covering her mouth.

"Sakura-san, a-are you alright?" Hinata gazed at her friend, who was fidgeting in her seat and staring at Hidan with wide-eyes.

Sakura unconvered her mouth and pointed to Hidan. "You look so different."

He looked at her, amused by her reaction. "I'd get fired if showed up to work with no shirt and covered in paint."

"Wow," Sakura breathed, smiling brightly suddenly. "I feel so special suddenly." She laughed lightly.

Ino snorted. "It's not that great. This guy's a jerk."

Hidan flicked Ino's forehead. "It's always cool to meet someone that's been on TV and stuff." He turned back to Sakura. "Oh yeah, and don't post this up on the internet or anything. I actually _like_ living normally here for now."

Sakura nodded. "I won't, I promise."

Satisfied, he let them finish their ice cream and looked across the street. He noticed more vehicles parked out in front of the dance studio than usual, but didn't think too deeply about this.

Once they all finished, they bid their farewells and headed to their homes.

Ino, however, headed further down the street towards the Yamanaka flower shop. She was 15 minutes early to her shift, which her father was happy about.

"How was school?" He asked as he squirted some of the flowers with water.

Ino put on an apron and begun checking all the plants around her. "It was fun," she said truthfully.

Inoichi smiled and glanced at his daughter, noting the small smile present on her features.

"Good," he said, returning to his work.

Ino looked out the window, watching a few pedestrians walking down the street. At a nearby building, something caught her eye. It was a bird perched on the roof.

She watched it take flight and swoop down before lifting itself back up into the air until she could no longer watch it.

She hoped, one day, she would be able to take flight like that.

* * *

**A/N: This was a difficult chapter to write. Like. I just couldn't get it right. But I guess I'm satisfied with it now.**

**Don't know when I'll update next, but I guess we'll see.**

**Ja ne.**


	3. Window

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

_The light is blinding, and yet I am all too aware of the eyes around me._

_The light is blinding, but the sunshine in my hand is brighter and it makes the eyes disappear._

_Suddenly the music plays. It reverberates throughout my whole being and I can feel the familiar warmth, the familiar floor beneath my feet._

_My sunshine tugs me along and I can tell he's nervous, but for once, I am not. I think I've entered a sort of Zen we're I am aware and yet unaware, and it slowly bleeds into my beautiful sunshine._

_His eyes, brighter than the skies above us, his hair like the golden flowers around us, and his warmth comforting me more than the sun ever could, leads me into this familiar dance._

_Our perfect dance._

_And, for once, I believe in hope._

* * *

Chapter 3  
_Window_

Sakura absolutely loved her new friends. In fact, school had become her favorite place because of them.

She was grateful for Naruto's sunny nature that had attracted all these people to him and in turn to her when she needed it most.

Her and Ino had practically become attached at the hip and chatted every time they had the chance, even exchanging numbers and messaging each other almost every time they weren't together. She was so glad to have a close girl-friend after years of acquaintance strangers at her old prep-school.

She enjoyed Hinata's company and wished they could hang out more often, but apparently Hinata had a rigorous after-school schedule that involved club activities and baby-sitting. They messaged often, though Hinata tended to be very formal and almost distant in her messages.

Kiba was kind and funny. He always had something to say to make her laugh when she needed cheering up.

Shikamaru liked to sleep during class, but when they got the chance to talk, she found him to be extremely intelligent and kind and thoroughly enjoyed his company as well. During study hour she began to sit over next to him and work on difficult homework problems together.

And then there was Chouji, who was absolutely a delight to have around. Sakura could only describe him as jolly as he munched on snacks whenever he could get away with it. Guiltily, Sakura thought he wouldn't be very smart before really speaking to him, but she was pleasantly surprised that he was pulling a decent grade in class and always turned in his work on time. Since he sat next to Shikamaru, he would join in on study time with them.

She loved her friends. They helped her not think of her personal struggles at home.

However, there was one person she could do without.

Uchiha Sasuke.

Sure, she was instantly struck by his good (amazing) looks and piercing gaze, but his personality just screamed "ass-hole." She had tried to be friendly with him, greeting him in the hall or inviting him to join their study, but he would more than often choose to ignore her attempts at kindness with a non-committable grunt and a turn of his head.

It was rude. It was immature.

And Sakura didn't like it.

So, instead, she decided to ignore him as well.

Except for when she stumbled into Karin's room one evening to find a photo album on her desk open to a familiar picture.

Karin had been in her walk-in closet and walked out at that time to see her step-sister snooping through her things. "Hey! What are you doing?"

Sakura ignored her and pointed to the picture instead. "Is that Uchiha Sasuke?"

The red-head rushed over and grabbed the album off her desk, hugging it tightly to her chest. "What of it?"

Sakura held up her hands in a placating gesture. "I was just curious. He's in my class."

"What! How?"

She shrugged. "It just ended up that way. By the way, do you know where the bleach pen is? My blouse got stained."

Karin ground her teeth before shoving her step-sister out of her room. "No! Go away! Don't ever come in my room again."

"Why?"

Karin glared at her before slamming the door on her face. "Because I can't stand you!"

Sakura stood at the door, frozen, although she should be used to this already. For years Karin had been like this.

Perhaps this time that familiar sting seemed to multiply with each moment she stood there was because of her recent weeks being so carefree in the midst of change and sorrow. She had been reminiscing often of her childhood, when papa was still alive and Karin was still her sweet, sweet sister. Not just a _step_-sister, but a true sister in her heart.

How did they get to this place?

She had to snap out of it when Chiharu called for her from downstairs. Sakura was about to go down to see what it was she wanted, but didn't have to go far before her step-mother completed her request, her voice carrying throughout the whole house.

"Clean up this place! We're having guests tomorrow!"

Sakura groaned. It didn't really bother her to clean as she sort of enjoyed watching herself organize everything and dispel dirt like a house fairy, but in the past it was something each one of them did. Papa would take care of the yard work and bathrooms; Chiharu would take care of the kitchen, dining, and living room; and Sakura and Karin would clean up the rest. They used to compete over who could clean the fastest, which Sakura always won at.

But now Sakura was taking care of everything: the yard work, the kitchen, dining room, living room, bathrooms, and all of the laundry. The only things she wasn't cleaning were Chiharu and Karin's rooms, and the dishes, which Chiharu did on her own.

She used to protest at the unfair treatment, but the more she was faced with Chiharu's uncaring attitude, the more she was silent.

What happened to her happy family?

* * *

The next day they had a pop quiz in Kakashi's class, which almost freaked Sakura out. She learned to hate surprises.

However, despite her momentary panic, she was quick to start the test and one of the first to finish it, checking it once and then twice before being satisfied with her answers.

She never missed a chance to study. Her father had always taught her to value her studies so she could get scholarships to good schools and get a good job where she would get paid really well without having to go through tons of physical labor, like what he went through. She had always listened to her father.

Everyone around her, it seemed, still had their heads lowered with their noses pressed flat against their tests, pencils racing furiously all over the pages. Scanning the room revealed Kakashi with his feet up on his desk and a bright orange book in his face, his eyes lazily following the words in front of him.

He glanced up then, his eyes suddenly focused on the pink-haired girl whose gaze was now resting out the window, a blank expression on her face. Kakashi knew she wasn't one to cheat after seeing her study every chance she got. Her transcripts were spectacular as well.

What was a prep student doing in this second rate high school, he wondered. Especially one with 4.0's adorning the pages of her transcripts and nothing but praises between those cryptic, boring words describing her abundant achievements.

It was probably family issues, he decided. There was no other explanation, unless she had turned delinquent, but that looked near impossible looking at her. _Besides_, he thought as he scanned the room, _everyone had their own issues_.

He went back to reading after glancing at Naruto conspicuously stretching his neck to the side to see his neighbor's test better. _Looks like the Uzumaki will get another markdown_.

Class ended shortly after and Sakura found herself linking arms with Ino as they chatted while they waited for their next teacher, Sarutobi Asuma.

Ino suddenly faced her and pushed her hand into her forehead, moving pink locks away to reveal her hideously _large_ forehead.

Sakura smacked her hand away, a sudden instinct that seemed to come out of nowhere, and suddenly she became wide-eyed and frozen, mirroring Ino's features as they stared at each other, confused, unsure.

"Sorry," Sakura offered sheepishly, trying to fix her fringe to, hopefully, look as flawless as Hinata's, but she knew it would just look frizzy and silly, but there was nothing she could do about it.

Ino smiled then. "Can I try something, please?" She added with extra sweetness in her voice.

She hesitated, but eventually let herself nod slowly and forced her arms to stay put.

However, to her surprise Ino instead reached into her bag and pulled out a thick, red head-band with a bow adorning the side of it. She reached toward Sakura and replaced the thin, silver one with it.

Her blonde friend smiled and examined her handy work. "There. _Much _better."

It felt different to Sakura, and so did her bangs and out of habit reached up to fix them, but Ino smacked her hand away this time and fixed her with a stern look.

"Leave it. It looks really good."

Internally, Sakura felt like she was beginning to panic. She had no idea what she looked like or even how _bad_ she looked. It was different - too different, and she didn't like it.

"Wow, Sakura, your hair looks really nice like that."

Her eyes snapped to Chouji, who had an unopened bag of chips in his hand and a bright, honest smile on his face.

Despite herself, Sakura smiled and thanked him with a pretty blush on her cheeks. She hadn't heard something like that since her father had told her how beautiful she was that morning. _That awful, awful morning._

"Whoa, it really does look good," Naruto chimed in with a look of amazement on his face as he examined Sakura's face as if for the first time.

Hinata, drawn over by the excitement, took one look at Sakura and nearly gasped from a sudden excitement at seeing the positive change. "S-Sakura-san! You're very pretty!"

Sakura was beginning to actually feel her long forgotten confidence grow exponentially at the positive comments, but it all came close to crumbling when her eye caught Sasuke's as he leaned against a desk far away from where she was, yet he suddenly felt too close for her comfort. His eyes were intense as if they scrutinized her for every little mistake – every tiny mishap - and she felt her (also long forgotten) temper rise. She hated the fact that this stranger with a name would dare to judge her in such a way. Although, worst of all, she hated that his gaze was affecting her like this.

In her momentary influx of confidence, she reigned in her emotions and mirrored his look right back at him, scrutinizing him for _his_ scrutinizing, looking as deep as she could into that black, black abyss in his stare.

The Uchiha, rather than be disturbed by her reaction, merely smirked and looked away.

And instead of letting herself feel disappointed, she simply did the same thing and turned abruptly away, returning to the conversation Ino was having with the others and gushing over her own ability to polish a diamond, which she figured out was Sakura herself when Ino had motioned to her.

And yet, one teeny-tiny thought flashed through her mind before she could put the exchange behind her.

_I can't stand that stupid, arrogant son of a bitch._

* * *

_I can't stand that stupid, annoying bitch._

Sasuke glanced towards the object of his irritation only briefly before crossing his arms and looking away. He knew he was being a little unfair, he didn't really know anything about the girl, but still, he knew enough to know that she was fake. She was just a self-conscious, weird looking fairy doll with stupid pink hair and aggravating green, _green_ eyes.

Annoying.

It was even more annoying that he was with everyone walking towards the ice cream shop _again_. They'd gone just a few days ago and now they were dragging him along. He didn't even _like_ ice cream so why did he have to go with them?

Sakura's tinkling laugh interrupted his thoughts. She was laughing at something Naruto had said, not that he really cared. He knew that the idiot was infatuated with her just by looking at him and his over-the-top gestures and jokes, but it was stupid of the blonde to think that a girl like her would be good for him.

Naruto was his best friend and, although he wouldn't openly admit it, they had each other's back. If one of them were about to do something _too _stupid, the other would beat it into them that they _won't _go through with it, and Sasuke was beginning to think he was going to have to beat it into Naruto that this Sakura girl was a bad idea.

Not that he actually cared, he had to remind himself. Naruto could go and date whoever he wanted, as long as that "whoever" wasn't _Sakura_.

From a distance she seemed too good to be true. She was smart, kind, and slightly (_more than slightly _) attractive. Be that as it may, there was definitely more to this fairy-tale girl. He could see it in the way she would suddenly lose focus around their friends, a dull expression on her face, as if too submerged in her own world. It wasn't the far-off look people had when they were daydreaming or simply had a lack of an attention span (_Naruto_), it was a look he recalled seeing on his brother's face often after the death of their parents, and one he knew he had as well.

She was reliving something, and it didn't seem to be good.

Naruto shouldn't get into something like that.

Ino spoke up suddenly, interrupting his train of thought, as they neared the shop. "Hey, isn't that Karin?"

They all looked towards the direction she was pointing, which was across the street from the ice cream shop at a place called Lil' Feet Dance Studio. Karin was with a group of her friends, Sasuke vaguely recognized them as the annoying girls that followed him around sometimes, standing outside and laughing loudly at some poor girl who was unlucky enough to cross their paths. From their obnoxious taunting he guessed the girl to be short in height, as that was what they seemed to be focusing on.

"Wait a minute…" Naruto stopped and focused on the group, trying to make out who the stranger was. His eyes widened before he suddenly broke into a sprint.

Ino followed, almost growling from her own rage. "Those fucking bitches! I'm going to kill them!"

Sasuke glanced at Sakura, who looked just as confused as she felt, but jogged over nonetheless. It wasn't until he discovered Hinata that he had realized what the big deal was.

Normally, he didn't really care for the long-haired girl, but he couldn't say he disliked her in any way. She was the least annoying out of all his friends, and perhaps that was why she hadn't made such an impact on him, but he sure as hell didn't like seeing the sweet, innocent girl being bullied simply because of the other girls' personal issues and insecurities.

In fact, he was surprisingly aggravated, especially when they reached them in time to see Hinata get shoved to the ground.

* * *

"This place is nice," muttered a man in his mid-twenties with long, golden blonde hair with part of it tied to the top of his head and long bangs sweeping over his face. He was currently studying a tall painting showcasing a simple silhouette of a ballerina.

He followed a girl with plain brown hair when she walked away, whom he dwarfed in height despite his own lack of stature. She was eyeing each crevice of the studio with a keen eye, one that, begrudgingly, he had to admire, being an artist himself.

"How do you like it, Ren?" Asked the blonde and adding a slight grunt at the end. It was a speech impediment he never could get rid of.

The girl walked over towards the windows and inspected the glass, seeing scratches adorn the old windows. She turned around to inspect the place more, but stopped and whipped back around towards the glass, looking at the panes surrounding it and holding it in place.

She twisted and looked at it from different angles. "The glass is warped," she stated suddenly, a slight accent in her voice.

Hiroshi, the owner of the studio, nodded slowly. "I'm impressed you caught that. I had the windows replaced a few years back, but the people I hired didn't do a very good job," he admitted with a frown.

She examined the glass one more time before walking back to the two men. "It might not have seemed like a big deal, but with all those scratches in the glass and the curve of it, there are a lot of weak points in it. It'll need replaced."

Hirosh nodded again and politely smiled. "Unfortunately that's up to you now. I'm no longer the owner."

Ren sighed, but chuckled despite her situation. "I guess you're right. The place looks good. You did a wonderful job with it."

He thanked her and handed her the keys. "By the way, you'll have a roommate here. He always pays the rent on time, so I'm sure you won't mind him too much. His name is Sai. I let him take the spare room upstairs a year ago and since then he's been a wonderful tenant."

She nodded. "That's good. I'm sure we won't have any problems." Ren looked thoughtful then. "What about Chou-san's students? Will I be taking them?"

Hiroshi shook his head. "She offered them discounted classes at her new place, so they all followed. I'm afraid you'll have to start from scratch."

Suppressing a sigh, Ren simply nodded and shook the man's hand, thanking him for his business and wishing him a happy life.

Once he left, Ren turned to her partner. "Thanks for coming, Deidara."

He shrugged. "It's not like I had much of a choice."

She laughed. "Damn right, you didn't. I'd have killed you if you refused." Ren punched his arm lightly before looking around once more. "This place has been kept up really well. All the plumbing works, the heating and cooling work, and the mirrors are pristine. It's too bad I'm still gonna' have to pay for the window." They leaned against the desk that sat near the front entrance, staring out the windows. They were quiet, listening to kids yelling outside and the faint chirping of birds getting ready to head out for the winter.

Ren groaned. "Ugh, I don't even know where to start now. How am I supposed to get students?"

Deidara patted her head. "There, there. By some unlikely chance you'll have kids pouring in to take lessons from the _Great Master, Ren_."

"Shut up."

There was a moment of silence until the yelling outside suddenly grew louder. The two simply ignored it. It was the west side, after all. It wasn't quite the ghetto, as some of the richer people of east Konoha believed, but it definitely wasn't as nice or as wealthy as the that side.

"But seriously, I need ideas. Would fliers works? Advertisements? You in a bikini?"

"Why the fuck do you always want me in a bikini?" Deidara demanded in exasperation.

Ren chuckled. "Because your reaction is so funny." She went behind the desk and started rummaging through the empty drawers and blank papers. "They really didn't leave behind anything."

"No shit," he deadpanned.

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Shut the fuck up. They don't even have any pens here." She opened up the last drawer. "Oh! Never mind. Found them."

Deidara was about to grace her with another insult when the sound of glass shattering erupted throughout the studio, reverberating against the mirrors and polished wood floors.

They stared, wide-eyed, at the group of five students, who stared back at them with just as much shock.

_Well, shit._

* * *

"Karin! Stop it!" Ino had called as they reached them. Sakura went straight to Hinata to help her up and comfort the girl, who was trembling and fighting back tears.

Naruto glared at the girls surrounding Karin, biting back a snarling insult. Sasuke stood next to him, blocking the snickering girls' view of Sakura and Hinata.

Karin simply scoffed. "Whatever. That whore deserved it."

"Don't you dare call her that!" Naruto lashed out.

"Shut up, stupid! You can't even pass class without cheating," spoke another girl with curly black hair.

Ino grabbed Karin by the collar, her anger getting the better of her. "Bitch! Who the fuck do you think you are picking on someone like Hinata? She never did anything to you!"

Karin shoved Ino off of her. "'Bitch'? Who are you calling a bitch, you fat slut! You and all your friends are so annoying. Only stupid fat-asses would want to be friends with tramps like _them_?" She motioned towards Sakura and Hinata, who were standing behind everyone, holding each other as everyone fought around them.

Sasuke stepped in front of Karin then, making his presence most obvious. "Go away, Karin."

She blushed as he called her name. "Why don't you come with us, Sasuke-kun? We're a lot more fun than these losers."

He showed no reaction. "Sorry, I don't hang out with fake bitches like you."

The girls around Karin gasped and began whispering to each other. The red-head was enraged at this, her face turning as red as her hair. "Then _fuck off_, Uchiha! You and your shitty friends fuck off and just go and fucking die!" She turned away, too aggravated now to even bother with them. "Come on, girls."

They walked towards the parking lot where one of the girls' car was waiting for them, but before they left completely, they crowed and called "bye sluts!" and with middle-fingers pointing way up to the sky, two of them thought it would benefit them to throw rocks at the group of friends who were silent, seething, and still.

It was then that one girl, furious at their lack of reaction, picked up a larger rock and chucked it while yelling "just fucking die already!"

Sakura and Hinata ducked in time, the rock missing their heads by mere inches and flying passed them towards the building.

The glass shattered and Ino, Naruto, Sakura, Hinata, and Sasuke all stood motionless, watching the shards fall and break into millions of pieces.

They would have run, if it wasn't for the two pairs of eyes that froze them in place.

At the sound of the shattering glass, the girls who with Karin swore and sped out of the parking lot as fast as they could; praying with fuming curses they wouldn't be caught.

How unlucky for the others, however, as they would have to bear the punishment.

How unfair life seems to be.

* * *

**A/N: This chapter took longer to edit than it did to write, I swear. Oh well. It's done.**

**I really would appreciate some critique as I am trying to develop a better style and stuff.**

**And as I am developing a better style through these chapters, I'm going to be going back and editing previous chapters continuously, probably. Maybe. Most likely.**

**Whatever.**

**Ja ne.**


	4. Studio

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

_My dream, my dream, my wonderful dream of rising to the top and being recognized._

_It turns out, to be at the top, one must be recognized._

_Who knew?_

* * *

Chapter 4  
_Studio_

"Uh-huh… Okay… Really? _That_ much… Alright, thank you for your time… Yes, yes…" Ren was on the phone now, talking with some window replacement company about costs.

Naruto knew he was fucked, along with the rest of them. Absolutely fucked.

After the shock of everything began to die over, the woman, Ren, they had learned, without words had merely shot them with a stern look and used one finger (_just one_) to motion them over. It was like that one finger had all the power in the world, because they all obeyed without protest, going around the studio and coming in through the entrance to avoid the broken glass.

"Sit." Was all she said and the five of them did so immediately, backs rigid, hands fisted on their knees, and eyes on the floor.

"Whoa, Sasuke? Naruto?" Deidara had managed to stutter out with shock. "What the hell are you guys doing over here?"

Neither one could answer when Ren had chosen that moment to introduce herself. "My name is Ren and I now own this studio. This is Deidara. Now," she paced back and forth in front of them slowly, eyeing each one with scrutiny, "anyone care to explain to me why my window is completely shattered?"

"W-well," Naruto started. "There were these girls and they were picking on Hinata, and so we went to save her, but one of them got really mad and started throwing rocks and one of them broke the window…" He trailed off, seeing Ren's eyes fixated on him with an intense look, as if he were about to burst into flames.

She shifted her weight to one leg and crossed her arms. "And what was the name of this girl?"

They each looked at each other in turn, hoping at least someone in their group knew who it was.

"Sakura, do you know who that was?" Ino asked.

She shook her head. "I've never met any of Karin's friends."

"So you don't know?" Ren asked impatiently.

After a long moment of silence, they shook their heads dejectedly.

She sighed. "Well, unfortunately I'm going to have to have you all take responsibility." She had pulled out her phone at that time and asked Deidara to help her figure out the number to one of the window repair companies.

She'd been on the phone with them for the last 2 minutes, trying to figure out the exact cost to get the window replaced was.

"Alright, thanks," Ren said abruptly after another minute of trying to get off the phone with them. She hung up and sighed before turning to the group.

"Roughly 500."

"What!" Naruto, Ino, and Sakura all exclaimed. Hinata merely flinched while Sasuke refused to show any sort of reaction, although, in his head, he was cursing his shitty luck.

The woman ignored them and continued with her slow pacing. "That's a hundred dollars from each of you."

"I don't have that sort of money!" Ino protested.

Ren sniffed once as she looked at the broken window. "Ask your parents."

"Th-they won't let me ask for that much," Hinata spoke up quietly, looking almost ashamed.

"Isn't there some sort of payment plan we could come up with?" Sakura asked hopefully.

The woman looked at her for a long moment, lost in her own thoughts as a cool breeze swept through the studio. She needed the repair guys to come in that night, which meant she was going to have to call them back in the next few minutes and try not to rudely hang up again.

Ren turned around and faced the mirrors, looking back at her reflection and those of the kids. An idea struck her and she found herself hiding a smile.

"Well," she began. "You can either each pay up the whole sum…" She paused, making sure her next words were going to have the right impact, "_or_ you could pay for lessons, which will help pay for the window."

It was silent for moment as they thought this over. Naruto was the first to voice his opinion. "What? I don't want to learn ballet or something girly like that!"

Ren turned abruptly towards him, eyes blazing and ignoring Deidara's laughter. "Not _ballet_. I trained in a troupe where I was the only girl and had to learn hip-hop, popping, contemporary, and just about anything you can think of. I'm offering _general_ lessons to you all. You'd be getting something out of this as well. Now, if you little twits will _excuse_ me, I've got a phone call to make… again." She had muttered the last part to herself.

Naruto was frozen to his spot. He was used to lectures and people yelling at him, but not when it was someone who was making him _pay_ for something he didn't even do. If he wasn't careful, the woman might be even more impatient and demand them to pay up front.

"Hmph… we didn't even break the window," Ino muttered under her breath.

Ren decided to ignore that comment. "Dance for two months and I'll consider everything good and done. Deal?"

"But what if we can't?" Ino asked.

"You can't spare three hours out of your week? I know you are all students at the high school down the block, so it's not like you can't make it. How many of you have part-time jobs?"

Ino was the only one who raised her hand to answer that.

"Are you working today?"

"Now I'm not," she muttered rudely.

"Family business?"

Ino's eyes widened slightly. "How'd you know?"

Ren shrugged her shoulders, handing her phone to Deidara and telling him to make the call instead. He grumbled something incoherently, but took the phone nonetheless and began dialing. "You don't seem very troubled that you're missing work, which means you're not worried about getting fired. So it's either family business or you're _trying_ to get fired."

They were silent after that for a moment until Ren clicked her tongue and looked about the room again. "The reason I'm offering lessons, just so you know, is so I can really start building up my business. If others see that I have students, they'll be more willing pay for their lessons or bring their kids to me. Either way, you all owe me money. Right now I'll have to pay for the window out of pocket."

She sighed and gazed at the kids in turn. "And you never know; you might enjoy it. If any of you are in sports, it'll increase your flexibility, balance, and strength."

"Wait, really?" Naruto asked.

She nodded. "Definitely. You know there's a bunch of pro-football players who've taken ballet just for that? That's why those big, muscly guys and run and jump around so easily on the field: they've trained their bodies to be able to do just that."

"Wh-what…" Hinata tried to speak up, but her voice didn't carry as far as she hoped. Her face turned scarlet at Ren's questioning gaze.

"What was that?" She asked candidly with a raised eye-brow.

Hinata tried again, taking a deep breath to keep calm and ignore her friends' gazes. "What k-kind of lessons do you offer?"

Ren smiled at her. There was a sudden softness to her expression, one that surprised them after her temper seemed to have spiked for the past 30 minutes. "Contemporary, modern, jazz, hip-hop, latin, and ballroom."

Deidara walked up to Ren and poked her side with her phone. "They said they'll be here in an hour, hn."

"Thanks, Dei. Will you go get me some ice cream?"

"Do I look like your lap dog to you? Go get it yourself."

She sighed. "Whatever, I didn't want any anyway." She turned back towards the kids. "I guess you all probably have places to be right now, but before you leave help me clean up the glass." Without waiting for a reply, she turned away and headed towards one of the doors at the opposite end of the room from the broken window. She came back a minute later with garbage bags, a broom and dustpan, and a vacuum.

"Be careful," she said frankly before depositing the cleaning supplies in front of them.

They all groaned, but decided not to protest further at Ren's sharp gaze.

As Hinata and Sakura carefully swept up the shards, Sasuke, Naruto, and Ino picked up the larger pieces and placed them in the garbage bags.

None of them had spoken unless it was to point out another large piece of glass to pick up.

Naruto suddenly sighed and threw in another shard. "I can't believe this happened."

"Me either," Ino complained. She looked around her for a second before carefully moving to pick up more pieces.

"Here, I found another dustpan and a hand broom," Ren spoke up, surprising all of them. She hadn't made a sound when she walked over to them.

"Thanks," Ino murmured quietly before taking them from her hands.

Naruto watched Ren walk away from them, curious as to how her converse made no noise on the hardwood floor.

Ino glanced up and noticed Naruto watching the older woman.

"Pervert," she muttered.

His head whipped around. "Am not!" He objected loudly before mumbling something curt under his breath. He then added out loud "it was like she was just floating over the floor. It's weird."

Hinata stared at him then, hearing his observation. She giggled then before explaining herself to his curious expression. "D-dancer's tend to walk like that. She must have a lot of control over her body."

He nodded slowly and picked up a small piece of glass, apparently satisfied with the answer.

Once the place was clean, Ren asked them all to write down their names and contact information in case they refused to pay what they owed, then instructed them to return the next day immediately after school with $25 each, if they could get the money at that time.

"If your parents refuse to give you the money, have them call this number," she said as she handed each of them a business card.

"But what if they refuse to call?" Sakura asked.

"_You_ call the number," She deadpanned. "Then we'll figure out the next course of action.

And so they left for the night, annoyed that they had to do something against their will because of someone _else's_ mistake.

"Ugh, stupid bitch!" Ino groaned in frustration.

"I know! She can't make us take lessons!" Naruto complained.

Ino slapped his shoulder. "Not Ren-san, stupid - that bitch who threw the rock. We should figure out her name so that _she_ can pay."

Naruto rubbed his shoulder and turned to Sakura. "Can you ask Karin who it was?"

Sakura was pensive for a moment before slowly nodding and offering him her best smile. "Sure, I'll try."

He chuckled then, despite the overall mood. "Yeah, I can't imagine Sasuke actually having to dance and be in a leotard and stuff."

Said Uchiha punched Naruto's other shoulder. "Dobe, we're not going to take ballet or gymnastics."

Naruto grumbled under his breath while rubbing both shoulders. "Is anyone _actually_ going to take lessons from that crazy chick?"

They glanced back and forth at each other, waiting for someone to speak up.

Surprisingly, there was one small pale hand that inched its way upward.

"I w-want t-to."

Naruto's jaw dropped. "Hinata? Really? Why?"

Ino's stared at her inquisitively. "You sure? I'm pretty sure we can get that one bitch's name and get out of this mess."

Sakura nodded and placed a hand on the petite girl's shoulder. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to."

Hinata nodded before shutting her eyes tightly, her whole body tensing up as she tried to calm herself down enough to speak up. It was like a coil was being tightened inside of her, just waiting for the time to release.

Naruto bent down slightly to become eye level with her. "Yeah, you don't have to listen that crazy chi-"

"I miss dancing!"

Instantly Naruto sprung back and put his arms in front of his face in a defensive pose. Everyone gawked at the small, normally silent girl.

"H-Hinata…" Sakura began, but Hinata shook her head to stop her from saying anything and took another deep breath.

"I u-used to dance b-ballet, b-but I had to quit." She quickly explained.

"Why'd you quit?" Ino asked. Hinata fidgeted with her fingers and shuffled nervously with her feet. She merely shook her head though before quietly replying, "B-because f-father didn't want to p-pay anymore."

Naruto had relaxed then and focused on her. This was the first time he had ever heard anything of her family life.

A realization hit him and he glanced at each person around him in turn. With the exception of his best friend, he didn't really know anything about the home life of any of his other friends and, in turn, they knew nothing of his. He used to know what Sakura's home life was when they were kids, as he was over almost every day, but now as he peered at her, he noticed that she never said anything of her dad or of his aunt. Even the day he tried to visit them, Sakura had told him that Chiharu was out that day and didn't want anyone over.

He found that odd, but guessed that he could understand a little bit why she wouldn't want her step-daughter's friends over.

He realized he had been spacing out and returned his focus back to Hinata. "How will you pay for lessons then?"

She stared at the ground. "I… I have some m-money saved up."

"Will it be enough?" Ino asked her.

She nodded slowly, doing calculations in her head. "Y-yeah, it should."

Sakura smiled and squeezed her shoulder before dropping her hand. "Then go for it. There's nothing stopping you." She looked up for a moment before coming up with her own decision. Her eyes landed on her blonde friend. "What about you, Ino?"

Said blonde hummed as she considered her options. "Dance actually sounds like it would be fun. It's a good way to stay in shape as well. Plus, I've got the funds from my job." She nodded as she listed benefits off out loud and in her head. She looked up at her two girl friends with a smile. "Why not? It's only for two months, right?"

Hinata's face brightened considerably at the news that her friend would be joining her. They turned their attention towards Sakura, who simply nodded and smiled. "It does sound like fun. I'm in."

The three girls cheered then, hugging each other and laughing at their own ridiculousness.

Naruto elbowed Sasuke's side. He didn't face the Uchiha as he was too focused on the scene before them. "Should we do it too?"

Sasuke scoffed and turned away from the scene, intent on heading home and finishing his homework.

Naruto turned with him and followed. "Teme, think about it. You heard what Ren-san said about it helping with our sports. It might be good to do something in the winter while we wait for baseball season, you know?"

Annoyed, Sasuke stopped and turned on the blonde, who halted just as abruptly and waited for a response. "I'm not doing it."

The blonde rolled his eyes. "Remember when we were younger and we used to hang out with your brother all the time?"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "Don't bring that bastard up."

Naruto ignored his warning. "I know you remember it. We used to break-dance with his friends and I know you liked it." He crossed his arms and challenged Sasuke's glare with one of his own. "The only reason you stopped was because Itachi left on tour and you decided you had to focus on only sports and school because you wanted to be better than him, but let's face it," he scrunched up his face in mock disgust, "you hate it."

The raven-haired boy had had enough of his friend and stalked off without a word, but this time Naruto let him leave on his own.

Sasuke needed to hear those words, he believed. The more Naruto thought about it, the more he was seeing this as an opportunity to get back into what he used to love doing, but most of all he knew that dance was a crucial part of his best friend's life. It was a constructive way to get out his frustrations and to put all of his negative energy into one physical form.

Naruto thought back on those days. While he and Sasuke would hang out, often times Itachi would be practicing with his band in the basement and the sound would carry up to the main floor of the house, vibrating the walls and windows. Naruto, of course, brought up that he'd seen some break-dancers in town doing these cool moves he tried and failed to imitate. Then Sasuke, feeling particularly competitive, had showed off the very same move almost flawlessly.

It became a competition of who had the better moves. They'd taught themselves breaking, popping, and locking for about a year. Sometime Itachi and his friends would join them, having learned a few things on their own before. Yet, when the year was up: Akatsuki, Itachi's band, suddenly went on tour and left Sasuke by himself for another year.

Sasuke didn't seem very affected by it at first, if only just a bit peeved, but over the course of weeks Naruto could really see it. He must have been really hurt by his brother leaving without a word.

But then again, it could have also been the sudden appearance of his uncle back into his life.

Sasuke had never really been close to his uncle. Come to think of it, Naruto had never even _heard_ of Madara until the day Sasuke told him he'd be living at his uncle's place for a while. It was extremely sudden and, Naruto thought, kind of mysterious.

Things became weirder after that. Sasuke refused to do anything with hip-hop anymore, claiming it benefited him in no way towards his future, and was a lot more distant. There was a period of a few months when they didn't even talk since Sasuke became completely absorbed in school.

Even now in high school Sasuke rarely hangs out except for when Naruto drags him around. Granted that Sasuke has become better since junior high, but a full recovery was .

Naruto sighed, hoping it would release the stress from the argument, but found that perhaps only time could help with that.

And perhaps a good rip from his bong.

"Naruto," Sakura walked up to him as she spoke. "Where's he going?"

She motioned towards Sasuke who was already a block away. "Home," he stated.

She nodded once. "You guys probably don't want to do this, huh?"

He chuckled and gave his childhood friend a bright smile. "It actually sounds pretty cool, but Sasuke thinks it's gay."

Ino and Hinata walked over then and declared they had to leave for the night as well and would see them tomorrow.

"I need to talk to my dad about this," Ino explained.

"M-me too," Hinata supplied.

Sakura and Naruto bid their friends farewell with hugs and promises and began walking towards their own homes together.

The sky had darkened to a deep indigo, but the streetlights' orange glow lit the way home for Sakura. She could see dark gray and blue clouds rolling lazily across the darkened sky, but she could still see a few stars beginning to wake up for the night.

Autumn's chilly breath swept through them and caused Sakura to cross her bare arms for warmth. The days were still too warm for a blazer, but the nights called for different attire. She wished she had at least packed it just in case.

"Cold?" Naruto asked mildly.

She rubbed the hands over her arms to help get rid of the goose bumps. "Kind of. I guess winter is almost here."

He nodded and smiled, looking up towards the sky. "I hope it snows a lot this year. Winter last year sucked with that one day of snow."

Sakura laughed. "I know. I was so sad that I couldn't make a snow fort."

"You still build those?"

She nodded. "Yep! I try to make one every year. Three years ago I was able to build one that was taller than me and had two rooms."

Naruto whistled. "Wow. That's impressive. I remember when we would make little caves."

"Oh yeah. It wasn't even big enough for one of us, but all three of us still tried to cram in there." They laughed together at the memory before falling into a comfortable silence.

They were quiet, lost in their own thoughts, for a few minutes. The only sounds were their footsteps few cars that would drive down the streets near them.

Naruto made a small sound as he remembered something. "Did you take gymnastics?"

Sakura glanced at him oddly. "Um. Yeah. Why?"

He smiled as he replayed something in his head. "I thought so. I remember when you and Karin would practice flips and stuff."

She giggled softly. "We did it for a couple of years. Karin got really good, but I guess she decided she didn't like it by the time we were in junior high and quit, then Chiharu told me I should quit, too."

Naruto gave her an odd look this time. "Why?"

She shrugged. "It was something about how it was becoming expensive and they wanted to save money for our futures or whatever it was."

"Oji-san didn't say that, did he?"

"Oh, no. I wasn't allowed to tell dad what she said." She sighed then, seeing her house come into view and stopped walking. Naruto stopped with her and waited for her to continue. "They fought a lot when you weren't around, Naruto. I didn't want them to fight anymore so I did what she asked. I didn't really understand what was going on then."

Naruto stared at his friend for a long time. He hadn't realized the real dynamics of the family and was surprised. Whenever he was around they all seemed perfectly happy.

He didn't realize Sakura was struggling, too.

He placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her what he hoped to be a comforting smile. "Hey, at least now there's something you can do that you want, right? And no matter what, even if oba-san says no, I'll make sure you get what you want. Okay? Just ask whenever you need something."

Sakura smiled gratefully. "Thank you, Naruto." She patted his head lightly. "You're a really good friend."

Naruto pulled away to laugh loudly. "Of course I am! I'm the bestest friend you'll ever have!"

She laughed with him, confused by his strange declaration but finding it funny nonetheless. "Sure, Naruto. Whatever you say."

"But it's true!" He whined as she began walking away. "I try to be the very best at anything I do."

"Except school."

He nodded, following after her but stopping when he realized they were at her house. "Except school. I don't need the best grades to get where I want to be."

"And where is that?"

"President!"

Sakura sighed and almost smacked her forehead. "You need school for that, weirdo."

He shrugged, not put off by her statement in the least bit. "Whatever, I'll do it my own way."

"Well, I hope you get what you want." She waved to him. "I'll see you tomorrow. Thanks for walking me home."

He gave her a thumbs-up. "Anytime, Sakura-chan. Say hi to oba-san and oji-san for me."

He missed the way Sakura froze up as he turned away to leave.

Just as he missed the single tear that rolled down her cheek through her forced smile.

"I will," she called lightly before making her way inside and straight to her room.

She collapsed onto her bed and grabbed one of her pillows to hug. The attic felt stuffy but she was too tired to go and crack open the window. She had homework to finish but she was too tired to do that as well.

Chiharu was calling for her from downstairs but she was too tired to answer.

The lump in her throat increased, but she refused to let more tears fall. Her father never did like to see her cry. He always had hugged her tightly and kissed her forehead and whispered comforting phrases that always took away the pain.

But now she could only hug her pillow and forgo the kisses and listen to the comforting phrases of her step-mother swearing and stomps echoing up the stairs.

She bolted upright when the trap-door burst open and Chiharu's glaring red-eyes found hers.

"What do you think you're doing? You were supposed to be home two hours ago!"

Sakura hugged her pillow tighter. "I-I'm sorry! Something came up."

Chiharu climbed the ladder and stood tall in Sakura's makeshift room. "'Something came up.' That's no way to talk to your mother. What happened?"

She sat shocked and wide-eyed. "W-well, our friend was being bullied and we went to go help her out. But then the girls that were bullying her got mad at us and threw rocks and one of them broke a window to the studio we were at." Her voice tapered off as Chiharu squinted her eyes at her, waiting for the rest of the explanation.

She swallowed. "The owner was there and saw us and didn't know who broke it, so now we have to pay for the damage unless we can prove we didn't do it."

"Are you really making excuses for your mistakes?"

She gaped at her step-mother. "What? No! That was the truth. I even have a number for you to call and talk to the owner about how we can fix this and-"

Chiharu, enraged, stalked over and grabbed Sakura upper arm. Her grip was like iron and her nails dug into the skin. "Don't lie to me child. You were the one to break that window weren't you?"

"No! I was telling the truth! It was the other-"

"Stop lying!" Chiharu slapped her cheek with her other hand. Sakura didn't even have time to feel shocked as her step-mother was yelling at her again.

"I can't believe what a stupid girl you are! How could you think you would have gotten away with that? Huh? How do you think you're going to pay that? _I'm_ not going to give you the money."

She shoved Sakura back onto her bed and stomped to the trap door and promptly left the room, slamming the door as she left.

"And don't think you're getting any dinner now, young lady!" Chiharu screamed from down the hallway.

Sakura was shocked. Chiharu had never been so cruel to her before. What had she even done to deserve that sort of treatment? She wasn't even the one who broke the stupid window!

The tears she tried so hard to keep at bay spilled out on their own. This wasn't fair! How could she do this to her? How could she throw those words to someone she raised alongside her own daughter? Sakura was the one that was mourning the most here! She just lost her _father_!

She stopped and sat up completely, suddenly feeling cold and apathetic. Chiharu lost her husband. Karin lost her step-father. She wasn't the only one mourning.

Perhaps this was how Chiharu was coping, unfortunately for her. If she could just figure out how to toss away those hurtful words and actions and try to appease her step-mother, maybe it would stop soon. Maybe they'd be able to learn to cope with everything together.

The ache in her arm told her otherwise, but Sakura was an optimist through and through and clung to her hope of a happier family.

But first, she needed to figure out the window situation.

Well, after she could find her voice again and stop _shaking_.

* * *

**A/N: Here's another chapter (hoorah!).**

**I'm actually pretty pleased with how everything is turning out, but I would still appreciate some critique here and there.**

**Ren is an OC of mine and plays a major role in this story. I wanted to use an actual canon character, but when I thought up this story I saw a certain personality as the new studio owner, one that I didn't really see in any Naruto characters.**

**And thus, we now have Ren.**

**Also, I haven't finished editing this, but I kind of wanted to move on to the next chapter already, so here you go.**

**Ja ne.**


	5. Change

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

"_The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The op__posite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference." _

_Elie Wiesel_

* * *

Chapter 5  
_Change_

The sun rose slowly over the sky, beckoning the moon to retreat and rest until the sun would yawn once again and descend back into its own confines. This was the never-ending dance in the sky.

Yet, after years of separation, the sun and the moon would be able to embrace for a few short minutes, and bid each other good-bye once more to return to their sorrowful dance.

Sai sat in his room by the window, unable to sleep the night before. He decided to sketch to help pass the time, but had stopped momentarily to watch the sunrise.

He'd returned to the studio late last night, but he was still able to meet his new room-mate. He wasn't exactly pleased to be sharing the apartment above the studio, especially with someone of the opposite sex, but resolved to simply go about his daily life as he always had done before and, for the most part, ignore the female in the small room across the hall.

He recalled the meeting the night before. All of the lights were still on even though it was well past 10 o'clock. He went to unlock the front door, but found it hadn't been locked yet.

A little annoyed that the new owner was being careless, he soon found out why precautions hadn't been taken. It seemed that there had been an issue earlier, as some workers were just now finishing up installing one of the large windows in the wall. He noticed a petite woman standing off to the side watching the men as they worked, paying no mind to the conversation going on between Hidan and Deidara right next to her.

She turned her attention to him as he entered and gave him a polite smile. "We're closed, hun. Try again tomorrow."

Deidara then playfully smacked her upside the head. "That's the guy that lives here, hn."

Her expression changed and she walked over to him, an apology already on her lips. "I'm so sorry, I completely forgot about that. I'm Koizumi Ren: you're new room-mate." She held out a hand in greeting.

Sai almost forgot to smile back, but he did and shook her hand. "I'm Sai. It's nice to meet you."

"You too." They released each other's hand and watched the workers check every inch of the glass to make sure it was set correctly. "Some kids broke the window today and I had to ask these poor guys to repair it immediately."

Sai nodded once in understanding. "That was the one that was warped, wasn't it?"

"Yeah. Go figure the first day of owning this place I have to repair something." She chuckled at herself. "Oh well, it's not like I'm short on money anyway."

He wasn't really curious, but he had read in a book that it was polite to seem interested in who you were talking to. "What did you do before buying this place?"

She merely shrugged one shoulder. "A couple different things. I was in a band, I choreographed shows for other bands, worked part-time at a couple different places, went to college, danced a lot, and so on and so forth."

He wasn't sure how to reply, so instead he simply nodded.

"How old are you?" She asked, turning to him.

"17."

Her eyes widened slightly and she looked him over. "Pretty young to be living on your own. Do you go to school?"

He shook his head. "I dropped out last year."

"Are you planning to at least take the high school equivalence test?"

"Yes. I'd like to attend Ame Academy of the Arts in the future."

"Good. At least you've got some direction."

They watched as Hidan and Deidara walked over to them. Hidan clapped a hand to Sai's shoulder. "Yo, Sai. How was work?"

He tried to give a friendly smile, but wasn't sure how well it turned out. He wasn't too fond of the silver haired man. "It was pretty busy."

The man nodded once. "It was fucking slow for us today. With the weather getting cold business slows down, you know?"

Deidara chuckled. "Maybe it's just because you work there that nobody wants to come in."

The other man flipped him off. "Fuck you, Deidara. At least I _have _a job."

The blonde shrugged off the other's rude remark.

Ren glanced between the three with curiosity before turning back to Sai. "So how do you know these two?"

"I know Hidan-san from the ice cream shop and have met Deidara-san a few times when he was there, as well as Kisame-san and Itachi-san. How do you know them?"

She nodded at his explanation. "Ah. I went to college with Deidara and Itachi, and then I choreographed shows for his band a couple of times." She pointed to Hidan as she explained the last part.

A worker walked up and interrupted their small chat. "Everything looks good."

Ren smiled gratefully. "Thank you so much for doing this on such short notice."

"No problem. Can we talk prices?"

"Of course," she replied and led him to the front desk. Sai watched them discuss for a moment before turning to the other two and excusing himself for the night.

He remembered hearing Ren stumble into her room a few hours later, but other than that he heard nothing more of the new housemate.

Now the sun was over the hills and he checked the clock to see it was almost 7. He guessed it was an appropriate time to start his day.

He stood up and left his room to the small kitchen connected to an equally small living space. The whole apartment used to feel pretty big to Sai, but he had lived alone here for the past 2 years and over time the space would feel smaller and smaller, little by little. Yet, now, with someone else to share the space with, he really could see how tiny everything was.

There was only enough room for a loveseat, a TV, and a small bookshelf covered in DVD's, books, knick-knacks, and CD's he knew hadn't been there the day before.

Suddenly realizing that Ren must have moved all her stuff in already while he was at work, he wasn't sure how he felt. On one hand he knew that the woman had bought the whole place to work and to live in; on the other hand, it was like an invasion of his space. He felt suddenly exposed even though he was the only one awake.

He wasn't used to living with someone and he wasn't sure if he'd be able to get used to it.

Sighing, he grabbed a skillet (one he, also, didn't recognize) and turned on the burner to begin cooking some eggs.

Sai looked around the kitchen as the skillet warmed up and was pleasantly surprised to find a rice-cooker sitting on the counter, just waiting to be used.

And so he found some rice and started the cooker, happy to have rice with his breakfast for the first time in about a year.

The smell of eggs and bacon wafted throughout the house, waking Ren up from the remnants of an odd dream involving talking cats and multiplying dogs. She slowly blinked and immediately threw off the blankets to try and escape the heat of the room, which was filled with both opened and unopened boxes and clothes scattered throughout the entirety of the space. A dingy rag was half-heartedly pinned up to cover the window, but the sunlight was still able to pierce through it and hit Ren's eyes callously. She groaned and threw an arm over her eyes to block it out.

The room hadn't been used much before she came in and the dust was still floating around, sparkling dully whenever it sailed into the streams of light. The brunette woman sniffed noisily, her sinuses having been clogged overnight in the stagnant room.

She could barely hear the sizzling sound of bacon being fried and found some motivation to roll over and push herself up off of her mattress on the floor. Clad in basketball shorts and a large t-shirt, she shuffled out to the bathroom to clean herself up.

Sai had just finished cooking when Ren walked into the kitchen. He had hesitated in making extra food, but was glad he actually did upon seeing her.

"Good morning," he said politely, feeling a little awkward.

"Mornin'," she replied groggily, foregoing the extra plate sitting on the counter in favor of a glass to fill up with water and gulp down loudly.

Sai sat down with his plate of food and began eating, not bothering to wait for his new housemate to join him.

She eventually did join him with her plate and smiled politely at him. "Thanks for making breakfast."

He nodded to show he acknowledged her gratitude.

After a few silent moments, Ren asked, "Do you always get up this early?"

He nodded again. "I like the mornings."

"Ah, I see. I like mornings, too, but I have a hard time waking up. What are you going to do today?"

He was a little surprised by her inquisitive conversation, but decided he didn't particularly mind. Perhaps, he decided, he'd been a little lonely these past couple of years. "I'll go to the park and sketch for a few hours and then go to work."

She hummed a short tone in response. "You draw a lot?"

He nodded. "It's what I like to do."

"Not going to hang out with your friends today or anything?"

This time he shook his head, a pleasant smile never leaving his face. "Oh, no. I don't have any friends."

Ren frowned at him, but chose not say anything for a while. She watched as his face was static, as if having no friends whatsoever didn't bother him in the least bit, though she thought differently. It was crucial to most kids his age to have friends and she doubted that he wasn't at least a little bit lonely.

She took another bite of her food while Sai stood to place his dishes in the sink.

After swallowing, she spoke up again. "Well, if you ever need someone to hang out with, just tell me. You have a cell-phone?"

He turned to her, puzzled by her offer and question. "Yeah, why is that?"

She pushed her chair back and stood up and hopped out of the room. "Go get it!" She called.

Further bewildered, he did as she said and retrieved it from his room. When he returned she was bouncing in her place, clutching her own phone tightly and smiling brightly. "Let's exchange numbers! We should anyway since we're living together now."

Hence they now had each other's number and Ren offered to let him have the shower first, to which he declined and replied "ladies first."

Even as Sai sat down on the couch and turned on the TV, he believed that maybe he wouldn't mind this housemate so much after all.

* * *

Sakura watched the ground move under her feet as she walked. She gripped the straps on her backpack tightly, recalling the confrontation with her step-mother the night before. She still couldn't figure out why Chiharu's reaction had been so bad.

Then again, she couldn't quite say it was unlike Chiharu to react so intensely. There were many times she had seen the woman's temper flare wildly. Her father had always handled it well, telling Sakura once that it was just like dealing with her biological mother, who apparently had a worse temper than Chiharu herself.

But this was the most violent reaction she'd seen from the red-haired woman. She hoped this wouldn't happen again; it frightened her. Even if her and her step-mother didn't see eye-to-eye, she still loved the woman that helped raise her.

As she approached the school gates, she made sure to lift her head and straighten her posture. She was working on feeling more confident and appearing so would eventually reflect on the inside.

She hoped so, anyway.

It was still early and she was one of the first in the classroom, so she placed her things on her desk and was about to remove her blazer, but remembered the bruises adorning her arm just above her elbow and thought better of it. It wasn't too hot in the classroom anyway, so she would be fine.

There was still 20 minutes before homeroom, so she made herself busy with organizing her notebooks by class and mechanical pencils by color, then finding her homework to go over for the fifth time.

She looked up at the sound of footsteps entering the room and immediately wished she hadn't upon seeing Sasuke giving her an annoyed look before walking over to his own desk and setting his things down.

Sakura huffed in irritation and went back to her homework, ignoring the pompous bastard as best as she could.

It wasn't long before the rest of her class entered the room and the bell rang for homeroom to begin. There was no sign of Kakashi yet, so Sakura decided to chat with Hinata for a bit about menial things and a pair of shoes she really wanted, but couldn't afford, and how Hinata really wanted to buy a new dress for the Christmas party Naruto really wanted to have at his house this year, and so on and so forth.

And finally, after 10 minutes, Kakashi walked in and quieted everyone down.

"Alright, so after reviewing the results from the last quiz, I've decided to re-do the seating chart."

Many students groaned at this news, along with Sakura, who had to pack up her carefully organized belongings and stand in front of the room with everyone else as Kakashi read off their names and their assigned seat.

"Okay, I'll start off on this side of the room and as I call your name, go and sit at that seat." He began reading off the names, which Sakura didn't really pay attention to until she heard Hinata's name be called and watching as she sat in the middle of the second row, and then next was Kiba, and next was a boy named Aburame Shino, who Sakura had never really talked to before.

Towards the end of the third row, Naruto's name had been called, which he whooped in glee at not being in the front row. Next, Sasuke's name was called. He was one seat away from getting the window seat again.

_Tough luck_, _Uchiha_, Sakura thought with a smirk, noting the way he looked at the empty seat next to his with contempt.

"Haruno Sakura," Kakashi said then.

And Sakura's smirk fell.

It was just her luck that she would be put right next to the pompous bastard. She drug her feet towards her new seat and shot Sasuke a glare as she passed him, which he mirrored back at her.

"Yes! Sakura-chan, we get to sit near each other now! Hey, Sasuke, will you trade seats with me?" Naruto asked excitedly, until Kakashi sternly called out, "No changing seats!"

Naruto crossed his arms grumpily. "Stupid Kakashi. I want to sit next to Sakura-chan." He turned to Sasuke then. "You're so lucky, teme."

Sasuke nearly rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right." He said sarcastically.

Sakura ignored them and went to organize her belongings once more before looking out the window, pleased that at least something good came out of the seat change.

Ino had been assigned to the last row, next to Shikamaru and Chouji, who Sakura figured earned the seats in the back for pulling good grades and causing the least trouble in class. She looked around then, noticing that everyone was actually methodically placed in the room. Naruto was sitting between Sasuke and a girl named Yuki, who Sakura had seen hanging out with Karin on occasion, although they didn't seem to be very close. Still, she sneered at Naruto and turned a cold shoulder to him.

The classroom felt tense now that everyone was moved, and it seemed like many didn't like the change, especially Sakura.

She shot Sasuke another quick glare. He ignored her and rested his chin in his palm, leaning away from her. She did the same, mirroring his movements without intending to. They'd hardly spoken since meeting, but apparently the ill contempt was a mutual feeling.

* * *

"That's not how you do it."

Sakura almost broke her pencil. "Yes it is."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and pointed with his pencil to the previous step she had written out in the equation. "You simplified this wrong."

"No I didn't. See?" She pointed to the equation next to it. "X-squared by the factor of-"

Before she could finish explaining, Sasuke stole the paper from her desk and began writing on it. Sakura noticed with annoyance that he was left-handed. He held up the paper and pointed to the new equation he wrote out.

"_That's_ how you simplify this."

She ripped the paper out of his hand and inspected his work. "Wait, but don't you have to factor this?"

"No, because it's only asking you to simplify the expression, not solve it, so you don't have anything to do after this."

"But that was way too easy."

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow at her. "You made it more complicated than it was."

"Aw, guys! I still don't get it!" Naruto whined. They had a free period to study for Asuma's upcoming pre-calculus test, which Sakura was more than happy to take advantage of by studying _by herself_, but Naruto had begged for her and Sasuke's help, since, as he put it, they were his smartest friends ever.

So, with a sigh, they reluctantly agreed after another 3 minutes of his incessant complaining.

But now, Sakura was beginning to regret it.

"Naruto, haven't you been paying attention at all?" Sakura sighed whilst massaging her temples.

He nodded furiously. "Of course! But this shit is way too complicated. Sasuke!" He turned to his friend and leaned towards him. "Explain it to me one more time."

He jabbed a thumb in Sakura's direction. "Have her explain it. _She's_ the 4.0 student."

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him, but refused to grace him with a reply. She turned to Naruto and began the near impossible task of explaining pre-calculus to him. How he even got into this class was beyond Sakura.

"This is simple, Naruto. You should have learned how to do this last year."

"Yeah, and it _still_ doesn't make sense."

She groaned this time. "You're not going to graduate at this rate."

He ruffled his hair in exasperation. "I've always been able to pull through, but this is completely insane! I don't understand it!"

"Look, you're going to have to work harder on this if you want to graduate with us. You _have_ to pass this class. You know that, _right_?"

"I know," he grumbled, his form collapsing on himself as he hunched over the desk, laying his head down on his arms.

Seeing his dejected look, Sakura sighed once more and ran a hand through her hair before coming up with a solution. "Alright, I'll tutor you."

"And teach him wrong," Sasuke threw in.

Unable to come up with a retort, Sakura settled with childishly sticking her tongue out at him before placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "I'll tutor you," she repeated, shoving his shoulder lightly to get him to lift his head.

He did so, his expression lightening at this news. "Really?"

She nodded, a cheerful smile adorning her countenance. "Of course. We can do it after school sometimes." Her expression turned stern. "But you have to study as well. You can't just get by with how you're doing now."

Naruto became ecstatic. "Definitely! Thank you, Sakura-chan! You're going to make me so smart! I know it!"

Sakura heard Sasuke make a sound of contempt, but decided to ignore him in favor of watching Naruto continue to boast about his future intelligence. She was about to tell him that his intelligence was going to have to be developed on his own, but figured it'd be best to let him be happy for now.

"… And we'll all be the best dancers ever after Ren teaches us all that stuff and-"

"Wait," Sakura interrupted his dialogue, "you're actually doing it?"

Unperturbed by the interruption, he simply nodded excitedly. "Yep! Jiraiya practically _begged_ me to do it. Something about how it'll help me pick up 'hot dancer chicks' or something."

She smacked her forehead. _Of course_ Naruto's godfather had told him that. Jiraiya was only _the_ biggest creep she'd ever met in her life. Granted, he was a nice guy and always had a smile on his face, but he was definitely too _friendly_ to any female over 20. Luckily, she had never been on the receiving end of his perverted jokes, being a small child when she had seen him, but had a feeling that if she were to see him again that perhaps she wouldn't be so fortunate.

Suddenly curious, she shifted her attention to Sasuke. "What about you?"

His eyes narrowed. "What _about_ me?"

She found herself rolling her eyes at him. "Are you going to take the dance class?"

"No."

For some reason she wasn't surprised by his answer. "So you're going to pay up front?"

"No."

Now this surprised her. "But-… but Ren-san said-"

"I don't care what she said – none of us did it so none of us should have to pay." Sasuke crossed his arms as if to finalize his statement.

"Did you at least call her and talk about it?" Naruto asked this time.

Sasuke glowered at him. "No."

Sakura was suddenly irked by his short answers. "I know none of us did it, but we were there and none of us can give her any proof that it wasn't us, so of course she had to blame us and ask us to pay. At least she didn't call the police."

"I'd be so screwed," Naruto said half-jokingly.

Sasuke continued to scowl at the two of them. Sakura was beginning to feel her temper flare up, which appeared to be something she hadn't felt in a long time.

She curled her hands into fists to focus her anger somewhere other than the pretty face glaring at her. She met his eyes evenly. "You can't just brush this off like it isn't any of your business. We're all willing to pay and help Ren-san out, so why are you acting so selfishly?"

His glare turned ice-cold. "I'm being honest, as you should, too. We had nothing to do with that window breaking, so why should any of us take responsibility. It's _logic_, which is something you apparently lack."

Sakura gaped at him, ignoring Naruto's attempts at placating the two. "Excuse me? Who are _you_ to tell me I lack anything? You _apparently_ aren't even man enough to give the lady a call to _tell_ her you refuse to pay. Oh, and by the way, if you flat out refuse to pay, that leaves the rest of us to cover your part."

He smirked and it was the most evil smirk she had ever received. "Just have _daddy _cover it for you."

Then suddenly everything stopped. Sakura felt like the floor had been lifted from under her, but the world was still upright, and she was rigid. Dunked into polar waters only to be pulled out and pushed into the fires of hell.

She didn't know when she had stood and she didn't know when she had even started crying, but a loud _smack_ woke her from her worldly detachment to find Sasuke's head whipped away, his eyes wide and full of shock.

"I _can't_," she felt herself say through her tears. Asuma had rushed over to question Naruto about the situation, but he just stared at her, shock and confusion tearing him up from the inside.

"I… I need to leave," she muttered to Asuma as she suddenly made her way to the door.

Naruto quickly asked permission to take her to the nurse, which Asuma allowed, and the blonde ran to her as quickly as he could.

As soon as she reached the hallway, Sakura collapsed, everything suddenly rushing back to her in a tidal wave of emotions that poured down her cheeks and landed in a puddle on the floor below her. She could hear whispers all around her, telling her _he's dead - he didn't make it – instant – never coming back – never – never – never_.

Hands covered her ears and she barely registered they were her own hands and the warmth on her shoulder was someone else, but she could barely feel it. It was too hot, then it was too cold, then it was too hot again.

The sound of screeching tires filled her ears as the whispering grew louder, louder, _louder_. They were screaming at her now, obscuring the sight of his eyes (_the ones that would be warm and full of love_) terrified, begging, _pleading she wouldn't be hurt_.

It was her fault. She wanted to go to that concert that he didn't want her to go to, but had allowed her to because she had _really wanted to go_. She wished she didn't go. Wished so, so, _so_ much to fix it. To have listened to him the first time. To not have begged. To not have _pleaded because everyone else was going_.

Her fault. _Her fault_.

_He died because of you._

"No, he didn't," she suddenly heard a voice say. She shook her head violently, willing that sweet, gently voice to go away and let her wallow in her grief.

She was suddenly being shaken. Naruto's face came into view, eyes glossy with unshed tears.

"It's not your fault," he _begged_ her to understand. "You can't say things like 'what if,' it'll ruin you. You hear me? You did _nothing wrong_."

She couldn't register all of his words and continued to stare with unfocused eyes at him, tears still streaming down her face and chest aching so, so painfully.

Unable to handle much of anything anymore, she allowed herself to be enveloped in Naruto's warm embrace and cried out the pain as best as she could. The world around her swayed until it was non-existent. She tried to listen to Naruto's soft, broken up cooing and caring hand as it gently stroked her hair.

Her eyes opened later on to find herself staring up at a very unfamiliar ceiling. A memory of her time at the hospital suddenly flashed through her mind, but there were no fluorescent lights and the bed she was laying was much less comfortable than the hospital beds. She soon realized it was actually a small, green couch.

She blinked a few times to adjust to the warm light emitted into the room through covered windows and tried to sit up. There was an incessant chattering noise going on that seemed to pound into her headache, but it immediately stopped when she sat up.

"Ah, she's up," stated a feminine voice.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto was suddenly in front of her. He examined her briefly, looking frazzled and panicky. She would have laughed if she had had the energy for it.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't know who to call and I thought it'd be a bad idea to call your step-mom because I know you two don't get along but I didn't know who else to call so I had them call Ren because that's the only person I could think of and we brought you here and –"

A glass of water shoved between Naruto and Sakura's face interrupted his sudden tirade of words and half-explanations. Sakura gladly accepted the glass and gulped it down, realizing how dehydrated she was feeling.

"Whoa there, kid. Give her some time." Ren pulled up a small, blue crate lying around to sit on in front of Sakura. "I guess you've been out for a few hours. Has this happened before?"

Sakura shook her head slowly. "No, not since my accident."

"How long ago was that?"

She thought for a second. "About a month ago, I think."

Ren nodded once and hummed. "If it happens again – see a doctor." Her gaze shifted to some point past her and she shoved Naruto with a shoulder. "Are you hungry?" She asked them.

Naruto nodded eagerly, but Sakura was thoughtful for a long moment before nodding herself. Ren clapped her hands on her knees before hoisting herself up and taking Sakura's cup to refill. "You two allergic to anything?" When they both supplied her with the negative, she decided on noodles and, after re-filling Sakura's glass, said she needed to run to the store real quick and dragged Naruto along with her, throwing over her shoulder for Sakura to rest and that Deidara was downstairs if she needed anything.

Sakura lie back down and let out a long sigh, still filled with questions she knew she wouldn't have answered for a while.

A sudden grunting sound had her bolting upright and looking to her right towards the hallway to find a figure standing there. Her panic subsided, but there was a wary anticipation building up in her stomach.

"What are you doing here?" She almost demanded.

Sasuke didn't reply, let alone move, and just stood there staring at her with a blank face. She hated how she couldn't read him sometimes, as if there was an emotionless puppet staring at her, and it unnerved her to no end.

She jerked her attention away and let out a _humph_ in disproval. She took another sip from the glass and set it down in time to listen to his slow footsteps grow louder until they stopped at the edge of the couch.

He was silent. She refused to look at him. They stayed like this for a long, tense minute. One unsure what to say, the other unsure what was to be said.

Another tense beat of silence occurred before Sakura heard his deep intake of air.

"I'll join the class."

Her head whipped toward him instantly. Speechless, stunned, she stared wide-eyed at him, a silent question on her lips.

He seemed to be unhappy with her reaction and crossed his arms. "I'll join. So, just… You don't have to pay any more than you have to."

With that said, he turned to leave, marching to the hallway with steady steps.

"Thank you," Sakura managed to say as she watched his back disappear into the hallway.

She was still stunned. Why had Sasuke even said that to her? Was he… _apologizing_ in a way? To her?

She turned back to sit correctly on the couch and grabbed the glass from the floor to sip out of it. A bit dazed she looked back to where he had just been at the edge of the couch. All she could see now were those dark, _dark_ eyes boring into hers with a look saying "I understand."

It wasn't pity, it wasn't sympathy, it was simple _understanding_.

And suddenly, Sakura's headache went away and the dull ache in her chest disappeared ever so slightly. She never knew that simply being understood could bring about such a warm relief of the pain that had been present for so long.

With that thought, she realized that there was more to Sasuke than she may ever know.

* * *

**A/N: Okay, so that little blurb at the beginning that I usually write – I decided to add a quote instead because there wasn't anything I could quite come up with.**

**Thank you, my love, for editing for me. You saved me from a lot of trouble.**

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed it. Look forward to the next chap, chaps!**

**Ja ne.**


	6. Glare

**A/N: Hey everyone, I haven't actually edited the whole thing, so if anything is so horribly wrong you wanna kill me for it, just let me know. Thanks.**

**Otherwise, I'll just get to it eventually.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

'_One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.__'_

_Lucius Annaeus Seneca _

* * *

Chapter 6  
_Glare_

In hindsight, he could have handled the situation better.

A _lot_ better.

Then again, how could he have known her circumstances? And, honestly, she had been just as rude as him, so of course he had every right to run out of the classroom and demand an apology from her.

And yet, when he entered the hallway the words vanished. The sight that greeted him had him questioning why he had been so angry in the first place. He couldn't think straight anymore – couldn't figure out what had even happened.

The perpetual tremors racking her body was evidence enough of her uncontrollable sobbing, but the miserable sounds emitted from her small, frail body tore something within him apart into millions of pieces, but he couldn't take his eyes away. She was painting for him a sorrowful painting he never wanted to see, however now that it was in front of him he knew he had to watch.

And listen.

Naruto was telling her it wasn't her fault. It wasn't her fault.

_It's not your fault_.

Then there was the voice inside his own psych that came instantly alive at the familiar words.

**It's your fault**.

These aching, biting words echoed around his skull daily, reminding him of his painful, painful past memories of nights he wished to forget.

"It's all my fault."

Hardly a whisper and yet a devastating, unrelenting screaming.

**It's my fault**.

Naruto embraced her, shooting Sasuke a dark look over her shoulder as he stroked her hair. He could just barely make out tears falling down his best friend's cheeks.

Once he found his feet he walked back into the classroom, ignoring Asuma's scolding and his classmates' curious eyes following his every move. The stinging in his cheek hadn't subsided, making him replay the scene unfolding in the hallway over and over and over again.

He was sure he'd just witnessed the embodiment of grief. Long ago, he remembered looking in the mirror trying to mask that same grief, but could never bring himself to smile like he did before _it_. So instead, he summoned the coldest thoughts and forced himself to become outwardly emotionless. So far, after 9 years, it's worked for him.

Sakura hadn't yet figured out what she needed to do to move on, and Sasuke vaguely wondered if he had even figured it out yet.

He still couldn't shake the image from his head. Throughout the day he tried and tried to shake the image of her trembling form and to quiet the sobs reverberating around in his head, but each time he attempted to distract himself, the scene would slither its way to the forefront of his mind.

Why was this bothering him so much?

Without meaning to, as their final class ended he followed Ino and Hinata while they rushed to the studio, each hauling an extra bag. Ino had shoved a duffle bag at him, claiming it to be Sakura's, and that he should carry it and at least apologize for whatever it was he said to make her so upset.

They'd heard Ren had picked her up earlier in the day and figured Naruto had left with them, seeing as he didn't show up to class the rest of the day. He vaguely wondered why they would call Ren and not Sakura's mother to pick her up, but after what happened earlier, he decided it'd be best not to assume anything else about the pink-haired girl.

He drug his feet into the studio and saw Deidara trying to keep Ino from strangling him. He gave Sasuke a pleading look, which the Uchiha simply ignored.

"Where is she?" Ino demanded.

Deidara held his hands up in front of him. "They're upstairs, but Ren asked me not to send anyone up yet."

Sasuke set Sakura's bag down by the front desk and stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do next.

Ino glanced towards him before pointing an accusing finger at him. "You! You need to go at least apologize to her!"

He refused to deign her with a response.

Deidara gave him an odd look, but after seeing Ino's strong reaction to his presence and even shy Hinata's contempt expression, he let out a sigh and motioned for him to head upstairs.

"I don't know what happened, but if you screwed something up, you should probably try to fix it. Hn."

Sasuke didn't move for a while. It wasn't until Sakura's hunched over form flashed through his mind once more that he resolved to take a step towards the hallway.

He avoided the looks that were thrown at him and disappeared into the short hallway connected to the studio. The old fluorescent bulbs flooded the room with a ghostly green glow. There was a worn-out soda machine selling water and few Coca-Cola products next to an equally decrepit vending machine housing a total of three bags of M&M's and a bag of potato chips. The machines sat between two doors: one leading to the men's restroom and the other to the women's. The very end of the hallway held a staircase.

He began climbing the stairs which stopped at a small platform and zigzagged to the opposite direction that lead to a closed wooden door. He tried the knob, half-hoping it would be locked, but found the door opened quietly to another hallway, this one lit only by dim sunlight from another room. There was a small incline in the hallway in the form of a step, and the dip in the floor held three pairs of shoes. He slipped his own shoes off and traversed down the hallway a short distance, passing two doors until he came to an opening in the wall.

He peered into the living room where Ren and Naruto sat in front of Sakura, who was on the couch facing away from him. Ren seemed to be the only one who noticed his presence, but made no indication to the others of her observance.

It occurred to him suddenly that Naruto must have explained to Ren the situation and, by her knowing glances, was going to allow him the time to say what he needed to say.

If he had anything to say at all.

Ren dragged Naruto out finally, clapping a hand over his mouth to stop him from saying anything to Sasuke, and shut the door firmly on their way out. The silence that filled the apartment then was suffocating.

He knew she hadn't made any noise, even as she laid back down on the couch, but the sobbing from earlier filled his ears again. He willed it away, refusing to acknowledge the real reason this was bothering him so much.

She seemed fine now, he decided. No uncontrollable crying, no shaking, and no bitter _guilt_. Maybe coming here was a mistake. If he just left here and put on his perfect mask, he'd forget all about her and her annoying grief.

But didn't she at least deserve an apology? A simple _I'm sorry_ to help ease her pain?

He cleared his throat, hoping somehow by simply her attention he'd figure out what to say.

She bolted upright and whipped around to face him. Shock engulfed her features, but after recognizing him, her form relaxed, yet the wariness remained.

"What are you doing here?" She demanded of him.

When he didn't reply (because he couldn't, couldn't, _couldn't_ figure out what to say to those accusing green eyes), she made a disproving noise and turned away.

His feet carried him to the edge of the couch and the words came out before he even decided what exactly to say.

"I'll join the class."

He shared her shock at his own words, but schooled his features into something akin to indifference, as if she hadn't just pulled the words out of him without realizing it.

_Stupid, annoying, complicated girl._

"I'll join. So, just…" He faltered, unsure of what he was going to say next (unsure he had even said anything). He tried again. "You don't have to pay any more than you have to."

And with that said, he left, unable to take the curious look she was giving him any longer. She was doing something very, very strange to him and he didn't want to deal with it.

This was his fault, he knew, if only he hadn't been so quick to try and insult her he wouldn't have to be here, making promises he couldn't be sure he could keep.

Annoying.

* * *

Fortunately for him, Ren decided on postponing any physical work until Monday and instead had gathered them all into the studio and sat with them in front of the large mirrors. She explained the general layout of the classes and that they would be an hour long every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. She wanted them in comfortable clothing they could stretch in, such as shorts or tights or anything that wasn't jeans. She suggested they bring their own water, but there was a fountain and vending machine in the hallway she would start stocking soon if they forgot.

"I haven't tried the fountain water yet, but I'll make sure it's actually drinkable before sending one of you out there," she had said at some point.

She explained to them they needed shoes that wouldn't scuff her "beautiful floors" when they would do hip-hop and she'd let the girls' know when they would need to bring heels for ballroom dance.

Sasuke had only been half-listening until a loud noise on echoed through the studio. Ren's head whipped around toward the sound and she fixed Deidara with a harsh glare.

"Could you be any louder?"

Deidara had dragged out a folding table and had dropped it on the floor. In response to Ren's sarcastic tone, he picked it up and unfolded it before dropping it again, the resulting sound much louder.

Ren rolled her eyes. "Oh, thanks, that's what I wanted to hear."

"Anytime," he called back blandly.

Naruto raised his hand suddenly. Without waiting for Ren to call on him, he asked, "What's he doing here anyway?"

"He's my slave for now."

Deidara had finished setting up the table and had walked over to them at that point. He smacked her upside the head. "She begged me to help her find a place to buy and then begged me some more to help out. Hn."

Ren rubbed her head. "Whatever, at least I offered to pay you."

He ignored her and walked back to set up the take-out Ren had ordered earlier on the table. "The foods' getting cold," he called out.

Ren mumbled something under her breath as she counted unintelligible things on her fingers. When she finished she looked up and smiled. "I guess I'm having a little housewarming party tonight, so you all are welcomed to stay. Even if you just want to grab a plate and leave, that's cool. I might have bought too much food anyway."

She dismissed them and stood to help finish set up. Sasuke was about to leave, but Naruto had grabbed a hold of him and begged him to stay for a little longer.

"Just for food!" He begged.

Sakura appeared beside Naruto and offered him a smile. "Yeah, Sasuke-san. It'll be fun."

By her smile Sasuke assumed she had already forgiven him, but she was taking him too lightly. Just because he had somehow apologized for what he did didn't mean he actually wanted to be friends with her. It was just something he needed to clear his conscience about. That's all.

"No," he said.

With that Sasuke turned and began walking towards the entrance but stopped once more when movement through the glass door caught his eye. A familiar silhouette stood behind the glass. When the figure stepped into the light Sasuke found his hands curled into tight fists and had to clench his teeth to keep back the curses he wanted to hurl.

The door opened and in walked the last person he ever wanted to see.

"Hello, otouto," Itachi greeted with a smirk.

Sasuke refused to reply and shoved into his older brother's shoulder as he passed.

Naruto and Sakura called after him, but he didn't listen. He didn't want to even breathe the same air his traitorous older brother breathed. How dare he even think of coming here!

He was halfway down the street before he started questioning why his brother was there in the first place. Did Ren invite him? Or maybe it was Deidara. In fact, he could have sworn he'd shoved passed Kisame and Sasori as well, or was it some other nameless friends of theirs?

Whatever. He didn't care. It wasn't his business anyway.

And so he walked away from everything that angered him and dug through his school bag for his little box of relief. He lit up a cigarette and hoped that as he expelled the smoke from his lungs, it would expel the annoying feelings boiling in his chest.

* * *

Before Sakura knew it, two weeks had passed and there sat a test packet on her desk, already completed and checked twice. She'd made a silly mistake the first time checking it and laughed silently, but as far as she could tell everything was correct. She flipped it over to show Asuma that she was done and that her wandering eye wasn't to cheat. There was at least 30 minutes left of class and there wasn't anything to do other than sit and wait.

She gazed out the window with her chin in her hand. The school yard was empty and the ground was littered with a copious amount of colorful leaves. The temperature had significantly dropped in the short amount of time that had passed and she found herself wearing an extra jacket and a scarf in the mornings. Although by the time school ended, it warmed up enough to forgo the extra clothing on the way to the studio.

'_Ah, it's Monday_,' she reminded herself. She was glad she had remembered her duffle bag in her haste this morning. '_Hopefully Naruto remembered his this time_.'

She smiled to herself. Surprisingly Ren ended up being a really good teacher and her lessons were something Sakura started looking forward to during the week, regardless of how physically taxing it was at first.

The first day she was a little nervous, she admitted, but 10 minutes into learning a simple warm-up and stretch routine they would be doing every lesson, she already enjoyed it. Ren's way of explaining things was simple and left little to be confused about. She had focused a lot on stretching their muscles and teaching proper posture the first lesson, but the next time she delved straight into an explanation of Jazz and Jazz dance technique, the origin, and how even though jazz isn't as popular, it's easy to apply to modern music.

She had felt a little embarrassed at first and a little clumsy as Ren taught them the first few steps, but when she peeked at the others in the mirror she noticed various degrees of the same feeling reflected on their faces.

Ino seemed to be the most relaxed as she copied the moves near perfectly, but sometimes if she couldn't quite get it the first time she would blush and glance around to see if the others caught her mistake. Naruto seemed to lag behind the counts and would quietly curse whenever he did something wrong, but was working hard despite not really wanting to go through with this in the beginning. Hinata was concentrating the most and didn't complain once about anything they were doing. She looked like she genuinely wanted to dance and walked faster than the rest of them to get to the studio.

Then there was Sasuke. At first Sakura couldn't wait to see him fumble over the new steps and get all flustered and look like a normal human for once, but to her dismay he did everything perfectly and without complaint. He obviously didn't want to be there, as proven by his ever-present scowl whenever they entered the studio, but it didn't affect his performance during practice at all. His timing was perfect, his movements were perfect, and worst of all she never saw him make a mistake.

She clenched her fist at the thought. Even though he'd apologized to her that day two weeks ago, nothing had really changed. He was just as much of a jerk as he was before, the only difference is he avoided any comments about her family. Now any jabs were directed solely at her.

To be fair to him, she hadn't really been any better to him. Honestly, she tried, but after every attempt at kindness was blown off by him she simply gave up.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Sasuke flip over his own test and mirror her pose. His features were pinched with annoyance, probably from the frustrating test he just finished and the persistent poking from Naruto he was receiving.

She glanced at the clock on the wall. Only 10 minutes had passed.

S_I_His His lsshHihe he sighed and folded her arms on the table to use as an impromptu pillow. She turned her head towards the window again and closed her eyes.

Ever since that day two weeks ago, Sasuke had also been more easily annoyed. She assumed it was from the sudden run-in with his brother, who she found out to be Uchiha Itachi, the lead guitarist from Akatsuki. After learning this, she could definitely see the obvious family resemblance, with his dark, long hair tied at the nape of his neck and equally dark eyes. The only difference were really the signs of stress in the form of lines that ran down his cheeks.

After Sasuke stormed out of the studio, Sakura remembered hearing Ren whisper to Deidara if she should have even invited Itachi at all, to which the blonde scoffed and told her to not even worry about something like that. The brothers had been that way since long ago. Then she had walked over to Sakura and her classmates and told them to eat as much as they wanted.

Hinata had to leave soon, so she declined politely and reassured Ren she would be here Monday. Not completely satisfied, Ren had her take one of the many boxes of takeout they had bought and a soda for the road. Chiharu wouldn't be home for another hour, so Sakura accepted the paper plate handed to her gratefully.

Naruto claimed it was sacrilege to refuse free food and had eaten two plates full of food while Ino didn't have much at all.

She met the other men that had come with Sasuke's older brother later on. There was Hoshigaki Kisame, who was Akatsuki's bassist and was _so_ much taller than she thought he would be. At 6'5" he towered over her by way more than a foot. His hair was a striking navy-blue that was accented by his beady-blue eyes. Other than that, he looked pretty normal with tan skin and a wide grin.

Sakura recognized the short red-head with them as the band's rhythm guitarist, Akasuna no Sasori. Their eyes had met briefly when he had walked in and she was struck by how _pretty_ his brown eyes were. They were wide and child-like, yet the way he stared at her revealed just how mature he was. By his posture, it seemed like he had a more high class upbringing that was reflected in his speech as he introduced himself.

She found herself blushing slightly at the memory. Did Sakura really know most of the members of a band that was continuously gaining popularity? She was so lucky.

Suddenly the packet she was laying her head on was being tugged out from under her and she lifted herself quickly to see whose hand was gripping her test. She was surprised to find Sasuke's irritated expression as he passed her test, along with all the ones that had been passed up behind her, forward to Sawako, a shy girl with long, straight black hair.

She blushed again, this time due to embarrassment at having nearly fallen asleep. She mouthed "_thank you_" to Sasuke, to which he merely _tsked_ in annoyance.

Slightly upset with his blatant rudeness, she stuck her tongue out at him briefly before turning back towards the window. The grounds were still devoid of life as it would be for another couple of hours.

The day dragged on for Sakura. She was ahead of all her classes and Ino, her main source of entertainment during school, was oddly quiet. During lunch she was nowhere to be found either.

She sat with Hinata in the classroom instead of going down to the lunchroom like she normally would. She really didn't want to deal Sasuke's aggravating behavior at the moment.

"I mean – couldn't he at least _try _to be a little bit nicer?" She continued to rant to Hinata, who was picking nervously at her rice as she listened.

"S-Sasuke-kun is normally not too bad." Hinata tried earnestly to console her irritated friend, but it only seemed to worsen her mood.

Sakura huffed loudly and bit angrily into the sandwich she had made that morning. "Maybe to you guys, but I'm pretty sure he's out to get me. Like, if I let my guard down he's going to turn into a vampire and suck all my blood and leave me for dead."

Hinata gave her a very odd, wide-eyed look before giggling softly. "Sakura-san, you're funny."

She laughed along with Hinata. She wasn't even sure where that strange exaggeration had come from.

Once their laughter died down, Sakura took out her phone for the umpteenth time to see if Ino had texted her back and was disappointed once again. She stuffed the device back into her pocket and looked around briefly. "Where's Ino?" She asked Hinata.

The dark-haired girl looked around worriedly to find their other friend to no avail. "I'm worried about her. She's been really quiet today," she stated quietly.

Sakura sighed and finished eating her sandwich. If Ino needed to talk to them, she would, so maybe there wasn't anything to worry about and she just needed some time to herself.

She tried pushing back the worrisome thoughts to back of her mind, but the doubt still made her uneasy.

Ino appeared in the room a few minutes before class began again and greeted her friends with a warm smile and cryptic explanations about what she had been up to, but the dazed look on her face had Sakura and Hinata glancing at each other questioningly. Yet Ino ignored their questions on the matter and went back to her seat.

Alarms were going off in Sakura's head and she whispered anxiously into Hinata's ear. "What do you think is wrong with her?"

Hinata merely shook her head. "I don't know. I haven't seen her become like this since she first met Sasuke-kun."

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "What?"

She tried to explain herself, but Yuhi Kurenai walked in and promptly demanded everyone in their seats. Hinata rushed to her seat with a quick apology to Sakura and a brief greeting to Naruto as he nearly bumped into her.

With a long sigh, Sakura sat down and carefully took out her things as Kurenai began to write something on the chalkboard. The seat next to Sakura squeaked loudly as Sasuke plopped down with an angry huff.

She glanced at him and noticed his crossed arms and deep frown marring his face. Sakura tried to stifle a giggle.

"What?" He hissed at her.

She stopped giggling and scowled at him. "Someone's grumpy," she mumbled just loud enough for him to hear.

He clicked his tongue angrily but ignored her otherwise. He really was being bad-tempered, Sakura noted. _Well, more than usual_, she had to add. She looked over at him briefly once more before turning back and writing down the notes that Yuhi-sensei had written on the board.

The image of Sasuke sulking figure kept flashing through her mind. He'd stretched out his long legs under his desk, but out of the corner of her eyes she noticed he brought them in and sat up straighter. Instead of sinking into his seat he was hunched over slightly to copy down the notes as well. His slender figures wrapped around the pencil gracefully as he wrote in his neat handwriting; handwriting Sakura _wished_ she had. His other hand held his head comfortably as he glanced back and forth between the chalkboard and his paper with his dark, dark eyes set in one of the most perfects faces Sakura had ever seen.

Suddenly those eyes were glaring at her. She'd been caught staring.

She quickly returned the glare before turning away abruptly and angling herself to hide her face as conspicuously as possible.

She hadn't even realized she was staring at him, let alone _checking him out_. That wasn't right. Wasn't she supposed to hate him? Sure, he redeemed himself one by sort of apologizing for bringing up a bad subject, but once wasn't enough to see past all of his utter rudeness towards her. She hadn't even done anything to him!

Her heart began to slow to a normal rate, but she could still feel her cheeks burn hotly so she continued to arch away from Sasuke's angry eyes and tried to focus on the lesson before her.

Suddenly she wasn't looking forward to the dance lessons anymore…

* * *

**A/N: This chapter was super difficult to write for some reason. But it's written, and it's here for you, so here you go. I hope you enjoy. If not, then you can tell me what you don't like about it or you can just not read anymore of it. **

**Also, it's a bit shorter, so, uh, sorry.**

**School's started. Yaaay college. (Or callege, according to my fiancé.)**

**Can't promise a swift update on chapter 7, but can promise more SasuSaku, NaruHina, and Ino's crush confession next chapter.**

**I'm tired. I'ma sleep.**


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